Teach Me To Fly
by AnAshBlackSword
Summary: Bayverse, VERY AU. Phoenix is a 15 year old girl living in a children's home. Her life is pretty boring, until on her birthday, she comes across a stranger called Jazz in the woods who will turn her entire world upside down. Can Jazz teach Phoenix what it truly means to live? And will they be able to fix Jazz and Prowl's brother bond when Shockwave gets involved? T for language.
1. An unexpected stranger

**A/N This will be Bayverse, but VERY VERY AU. It takes place a couple of months after the second movie. I will be continuing with my stories about Ash and Jazz, this idea has just been nagging at my mind for awhile. I hope you enjoy this story :D Thank you for reading and please review! -AnAshBlackSword**

Phoenix awoke to the sound of shrieking children and angry children's home workers. She groaned and covered her head with the pillow, hoping to get some more rest, but it was pointless. The noise got louder and louder and with an annoyed groan, she got out of bed and stalked over the wardrobe where she pulled on her favourite clothes. Blue jeans, flannel shirt, grey hoodie and her beloved leather jacket. Finally, she grabbed her ipod shuffle which she guarded with a vengeance.

She had lived in the children's home for seven years now. Her parents had died in a car crash, no relatives had taken her in and the last time she was fostered, she had been seven. Nobody had wanted to adopt her then because she was a bit of a weird kid and nobody wanted to adopt or foster her now because she had a whole bunch of annoying issues.

Throwing open the door, she walked downstairs to grab her breakfast which was always a cereal bar because the cereal was always old and nasty. The workers were all there for the money, nobody actually gave a damn about the kids really. Grabbing it she turned to Phil, the head worker there who was currently separating two of the smaller kids from fighting.

"I'm going out. I'll be back later." He nodded, not really caring when later was. Some of the older boys stayed out all night. She grabbed a set of keys, and walked out. It was literally that easy to leave the kids home. Phoenix decided that as it was a Saturday, she'd go to the woods instead of the park. There were always less people in the woods, and even though it was further to go, she could spend all day there in the peace and quiet. She played her favourite song, which was "Monster" by Skillet. This was the norm for Phoenix. For seven years, she'd lived in the same damn home. Same routine, same people, same town, same woods. Same everything.

When she arrived, Phoenix headed for her favourite place in the woods, which was an old tree that had fallen over. People were rarely seen in that part of the woods which was good. When she got there, she saw that someone else was already at the tree. Sitting on it. Huh. Weird.

"Um, Hi." She greeted the stranger, who was a boy that looked to be around 17, which was two years older than her.

"Hi."

"I haven't seen you around here before, what's your name?" she asked him, sizing him up. Phoenix knew from experience that older boys in the woods were never a good thing. Despite being short, she could hold her own in a fight and besides, a good knee to the groin worked wonders and had never failed her yet.

"Ah'm Jazz, and nah, ah'm not from here. What's ya name?" He had a heavy accent that Phoenix did not recognise at all.

"Phoenix." Instead of shifting uncomfortably under her scrutiny like most people did, he looked at her. He was wearing dark glasses and she couldn't see what colour his eyes were. He was also wearing blue jeans and a short sleeved grey shirt.

"Ya look like ya are considerin' how good ah am at fightin'."

"That's because I am."

"Why?" He asked, seeming to be genuinely curious. She snorted.

"In case you cause any trouble."

"What kind of trouble would ah cause?" She snorted again. Either he was really stupid, or the people where he lived were actually decent. She suspected it was the latter, but she wasn't ruling out the first one just yet.

"Nevermind." She'd let him figure it out himself. Sastisfied it was safe enough to get closer and that she could punch him if she tried anything funny, she pulled herself up to sit beside him. "So, what brings you to this area? I mean, it's not exactly nice here." That was the understatement of the century. This town was an absolute dump, nobody came here anymore.

"Ah wanted to get away. An' yaself?" Well she could understand that as that was why she often left the home a lot and ignored curfew more than most.

"I live in this shithole unfortunately. I'm stuck here until I graduate from the shithole they call high school, then I can leave."

"Are ya allowed to use tha' kinda language? Ya look ah bit young." She looked at him disbelievingly.

"Everyone talks like this and I'm 15 so I'm not young." He nodded at her and she sighed. "You really aren't from anywhere near here are you?"

"Nope." They sat in an awkward silence for a bit. Phoenix wasn't one for small talk really and Jazz didn't seem to be either.

"How old are you?" He stopped and seemed confused for a second. Yep, definitely stupid.

"17 and ya are 15 right?"

"Yep, 15 today." It was her birthday. She had never celebrated her birthday really. The home made no effort for it and the foster homes hadn't been that great either.

"Oh so, are ya gonna have a party? Whatcha doin' in a forest? Where's ya family?"

"I live in a kids home, we have no parties there. Nobody gives a damn about anyone. As for the forest, said kids home is also a shithole, just like this town."

"Oh."

**Jazz's POV**

Jazz looked at the human girl before him with interest. He had left the base for some downtime after mission city, and had ended up in this small town. He had wanted a walk for some peace and quiet and to just try and forget about the war at the moment, so he had activated his holoform and gone to see what beauty earth had to offer. He had sat down on this tree, and then this girl had come along.

He wasn't really sure what to think of her. She was very different to most humans he had met, deciding if he was a danger before approaching, much like you would do to an enemy. She had a "don't give a frag" attitude about her and Jazz wasn't really sure how to react to her background. He was learning a lot about humans today. When he heard about her uncelebrated birthday, he frowned. It had been a big deal for the Autobots when Lennox's daughter Annabelle, had her second birthday. It had been a big deal for Sam and Mikaela on their 19th birthdays. Birthdays were special and this girl had never had one?

Suddenly, he wanted to help her. Sure, he technically wasn't allowed to do this, but it wasn't like she suspected anything about him being an Autobot. Prime wouldn't even have to know.

"Maybe we could go somewhere for ya birthday." He offered. She turned and looked at him in amazement.

"Um, you literally just met me."

"Ah know, but it seems ah shame not to have ah birthday." She hesitated at this and considered.

"I guess….look, it's not like we can go anywhere in this bloody town anyway."

"Ah can drive. Ah can take ya somewhere." She gave him a look.

"I just met you, do you think I'm that stupid?"

"No, but the offer's there if ya want it." He watched as she hesitated for a bit, thinking about it.

"Okay." She jumped down from the tree, "Better show me where your car is."

"Okay." _I'm crazy. _Jazz thought to himself._ I've barely known this girl 15 minutes and I'm taking her somewhere? If Prime finds out, I am slagged. And I'm out of my pit-slagging processor._


	2. Are you just a dream?

**Phoenix's POV**

_I am officially crazy. _Phoenix thought to herself as she followed Jazz to his car. This was absolutely screaming danger at her, going to a stranger's car. She knew about 'stranger danger' and the horror stories of what happened to kids who got in cars with strangers. Yet still, she followed him. Phoenix felt like she could trust Jazz somehow, although that was stupid. In this world full of selfish, hateful and greedy people, Phoenix had learned that no human being was ever to be trusted. Ever.

"Here it is." Jazz had taken them to the visitors car park, not that it was ever used anyway. The only car in the car park was a silver _Pontiac Solstice. _

"You've got to be kidding me, there is no way that belongs to you."

"It does." There was no way a 17 year old could own a car that expensive.

"Sure. Look, I'm not interested in going to Juvenile Prison for getting caught in a stolen car because there's no way in hell you own that."

"Well...um... ah don't. It's mah Dad's and he lets me use it." He said, thinking quickly of an explanation. He opened the passenger door for her. "Do ya wanna get in or not then?." She was crazy. This was a bad idea. Who knew what would happen if she got in the car? A stolen car at that/ "Hey, ah won't hurt ya. Ah know ya are scared of meh, but ah promise, ah will never hurt ya. An' the car realleh is mah Dad's." Her mind made up, she climbed in.

"I am not scared of you." He didn't bother to argue, and went round to the drivers side.

"So, where do ya wanna go?"

"I don't really know, I've never been anywhere before, and I don't have any money, damned thieving buggers at the home." This was all true. Jazz frowned, money was not an issue. He waved her concerns away.

"Ah've got plenty of tha' so don' worry." He did as well, Lennox had given all the bots credit cards in case they ever needed it. As a result, Jazz had plenty of money and nothing to do with it. "Ah guess we could go to ah beach." Phoenix's eyes lit up. She had only been to the beach three times, twice with foster parents and once three years ago with the kids home. She had loved the ocean.

"I don't have any swimming stuff though."

"Like ah said, don' worry, ah'll sort it for ya."

"I'd love to go to the beach then." She smiled at him for the first time since they had met and he smiled warmly back.

**Jazz's POV**

Jazz took her to a shopping centre first. He knew that Phoenix would probably just be wanting a swimsuit, but he inspected what she was wearing. He didn't need a scanner to know it was old and not in a good condition. So, why not treat her? She looked and sounded like she deserved a 'treat' as humans call it. After she had chosen a swimming costume, towel and goggles, he took her to a clothes shop.

"What are we doing?" she asked him, confused.

"Ya are gettin' some new clothes Phoenix."

"You're joking."

"Ah'm perfectly serious."

"I don't even know who you are, why are you doing this for me?"

"Because ah want to. Ya need this."

"If this is a dream, they I pray to God that I never wake up." And so, they spent the next few hours choosing new clothes for Phoenix. She binned her old shirt, jeans and hoodie, but told him the jacket held some kind of sentimental value for her and that she wanted to keep it. When they were done, he took her to a stretch of pretty much abandoned beach. She changed into the swimming costume behind a bush and came out.

"I've never been swimming before. The last time, the workers were too afraid of the kids drowning and the other two, the families didn't want us wet."

"Ah can teach ya." Jazz had never been swimming either, but he could download how to do it in mere seconds and have the information memorised. She nodded and he taught her how to swim. He was no human, but from what Jazz could tell, Phoenix might actually be a pretty good swimmer. Then they just sat together on the beach and stared out over the water. Jazz noticed various oddly shaped scars and old marks and bruises.

"Wha's tha' from?" He pointed to one on her arm. She looked at where he was pointing.

"Oh, that? That's from where some asshole smashed a glass bottle into my arm. This one …." She pointed to a long one on her leg "Is where a group of kids got a knife and the others are all from fights as well." Jazz frowned, sparklings and younglings were supposed to stay out of fights. If another youngling had done this, they should be punished.

"Are ya gonna be okay?" she laughed at him.

"This is how I live Jazz. I fight quite a lot. It's not usually me starting it, but you shouldn't mess with me." The last part was directed at him as a slight warning.

"Ah would'n'" he said seriously and meant it. For a small youngling, she seemed very fiercesome. They sat like that some more, making small talk about favourite colours and books and that kind of thing. Phoenix told him about her music tastes and he told her about his.

"I won't see you after this will I?" Jazz froze at the unexpected question. He had known this human for half a day, half a slagging day, which was short by human terms let alone cybertronian, and yet, he felt like he couldn't lose her. There was just something about her that he'd never seen in another human or a cybertronian before. Maybe it was her attitude or maybe it was because she interested him. He didn't know, but whatever it was he wanted to see her again, protocol be slagged.

"Ya will. Ah don' know when, but ya will see meh again."

"You know, I think that means I can say that you are the first friend I've ever had." The moment was peaceful, until Jazz received a ping over intercom from Ironhide.

**:: What the pit did you do? There are three decepticons inbound to your location! ::**

**:: Wha'? Slag! :: **

**:: We will be there with back-up as soon as we can. Stay at your current position. :: **Jazz shifted nervously.

**:: Ah ….. can't. :: **

**::Why in the pit not?! ::**

**:: Ah, um, met a human and she's um, kinda here 'hide. ::**

**:: WHAT?! :: **a pause, then. **:: Prime says to reveal yourself and keep her safe at all costs. I almost hope the decepticons slag you before I do. Get yourself and the girl to safety. Ironhide out. :: **

Jazz turned to Phoenix.

"We have to go."

"Why?" she asked, perplexed. "Do you need to be somewhere?"

"Ah haven't been honest wit' ya."

"What, you are actually a millionare or something?"

"No, it's nothin' like tha', but ….. this is hard to understan' but ah am an alien."

"Right."

"No, ah am, and there are bad ones coming here and ah have to get us outta here." She stopped laughing at the look on his face.

"Oh my God, you're not joking." He shook his head. "Okay." She quickly pulled on clothes over the top of the swimming costume which was mostly dry anyway and climbed into his alt mode. He removed the holoform. "Shit! Where did you go?!"

Phoenix's POV

Phoenix was terrified. Jazz was an alien. A motherfricking _alien. _And now, there were bad aliens coming for him. She had met him this morning, this was ridiculous! It was all a dream, and any minute she would wake up now and be back at the home. But she knew it wasn't a dream, and she was glad in an odd sort of way. This was impossible for anyone, let alone her meaningless self and now she was with an alien. Then Jazz vanished and she freaked.

"Calm down, ah am the car. Ah'm still here."

"Oh.." she laughed shakily. "So, what kind of alien are you, and who are the bad ones?"

"Ah am ah Cybertronian from the planet Cybertron. Ah guess ya could describe meh as a giant robot, but we are much more complicated. The bad ones, are the decepticons. Ah am an Autobot. We came here lookin' for somethin' and we left our home because it was destroyed by ah war." Phoenix didn't really know what to say at this but she didn't have too, for there was the sound of loud cannon fire and smoke appeared. She twisted to look out the back window and saw three black police cruisers, with the words "To Punish and Enslave," written on them.

"Strap in." Phoenix did not need to be told twice as Jazz began to pull crazy manoeuvres in an attempt to lose the decepticons. They pulled onto a side road to lose them and it led them to a massive scrap yard. Jazz pulled in behind a pile of scrap metal and turned off his engines and lights.

"Ssssh, they won't hurt ya while ah'm here." Phoenix made an effort to breathe as quietly as possible. Then they saw the decepticons. "Phoenix, ah need ya to get out an' hide in somewhere. Don' come out until it's safe, do ya promise meh?"

"There's three of them and one of you!"

"Promise meh Phoenix."

"I …..Promise." she said reluctantly. Jazz opened the car door for her and she ran into a pile of metal. Then, Jazz began to transform. He was massive! Smaller than the other three aliens, but still massive. She watched in horror as Jazz fought the three others. He was obviously an excellent fighter but there was three of them. They hit his shoulder, chest and leg with their cannons and one of them cut Jazz with his blades, and blue liquid came from the wounds. It was obviously Jazz's blood.

For the first time in her life, Phoenix did not know what to do. She wanted to help Jazz, but she didn't know how! She had to help him though. Seeing some rocks she had an idea. Grabbing one she hurled it as hard as she could at the nearest bad guy. It hit him and he turned around and saw her.

"Come and get me Asshole! Or are you too slow you ugly bitch!" Distracted from Jazz, he began to move towards her and she dived into the pile and cowered under it. She could hear him wrecking it searching for her. Suddenly, she saw daylight and a giant metal claw and she screamed. It grabbed her and lifted her up to an angry black metal face.

"You will pay for that human!" She was squeezed tightly, and couldn't breathe. She was going to get crushed and her life would be over at 15. Then, everything seemed to slow down. There was a loud band, then the sound of some others shouting. Then she was released and plummeted head first towards the ground. Suddenly she was grabbed in a pair of silver hands that appeared out of nowhere.

"Ah got ya Phoenix, ya are safe now." Groaning, Phoenix saw the world spin and lurch sideways and her head lolled backwards and she passed out.


	3. Meeting the Prime

**Phoenix's POV**

Phoenix groaned softly as she regained consciousness. She felt like absolute crap and that was probably the understatement of the century. Millennia. Whole of existence. Her head was killing her, her legs and body were burning as she had probably cut it crawling around in the scrapyard place. Her left arm was in agony and she suspected it was broken, and her ribs might be too since they hurt like shit as well. She had been dropped from twenty feet up approximately. At least she had been caught by Jazz…. Speaking of Jazz, where was he? Was he okay? And where the hell was she?

Opening her eyes, she found that she was in a large white room lying on some kind of giant metal table. _Oh yeah, giant robot aliens need giant tables I guess. _She also found that she was restrained and hooked up to a drip and could not move. _Damnit. _She spotted Jazz over on another metal table. He seemed to be sleeping, the monitors on him were on so he couldn't be dead. Sighing, she called out.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" No answer. Well, there wasn't really much to do except wait she guessed. Just then, there was a loud grating sound and footsteps. A yellow and green robot loomed over her and she gasped in awe. This one was much larger than Jazz!

"I see that you are online, youngling."

"Um, yeah." Youngling? Online? She guessed that was alien speak for "I see you are awake, child."

"I am Ratchet, Chief Medical Officer of the Autobot. You have sustained heavy damage to your frame and processor."

"Good for you, and that's really great and all but can you speak English? I don't speak alien." She told him. He made a weird rumbling noise that sounded kind of annoyed.

"I am sorry, I forget that you do not know our terms. I am the Head Doctor for the Autobots and you have injured your body and head severely. How much pain are you in approximately?"

"Oh, well I ache all over, I've got a headache and my ribs and killing me. My left arm also hurts like hell." He nodded and went over to find some human painkillers for her. He couldn't give her too much as she was only a youngling after all and he did not want to hurt her. Phoenix shifted uncomfortably. "Can you take these cuffs off please?" Ratchet looked down at her. She didn't look like she was going to make a run for it.

"Okay, but you cannot move that much as you are still attached to the drip." She nodded and he undid the restraints. She sat up gently, and her ribs and arm screamed in protest. It was worth it though, as she could now see that she was in a giant doctor's surgery. Her eyes landed on Jazz.

"Will Jazz be okay?" Ratchet snorted.

"Physically he will be fine. He is currently recharging as it will help the damage to repair faster. However, he has broken protocol by communicating and endangering a human so he shall be punished."

"Oh." Said human was obviously her. She wondered what she would do now she'd met a bunch of aliens. Phoenix hoped she wouldn't be sent back to the kids home, Jazz seemed like he wanted to be her friend and Ratchet wasn't too bad either. Then, the giant doors slid open again, causing another loud scraping noise and in walked a silver robot and a golden robot.

"Sunny, look! There really is a mini squishy in the med-bay, Bumblebee was telling the truth!" The silver one said. He received a glare from the golden robot.

"Don't call me that Sides! And I don't care if it's a mini squishy or a slightly bigger squishy, they are all oily and disgusting and nasty. I don't want to touch any fleshbags whatsoever." Well, so much for all aliens being nice. This one certainly required a good tongue thrashing, but Ratchet beat her to it.

"Get out you two! I don't want you in my med-bay!"

"Aww, but Ratch I just wanted to see the mini squishy. Can I hold it?" Jeez, he made her sound like some kind of fragile pet that he was curious about.

"NO Sideswipe, I've told you before that the humans are not our pets. They are sentient beings and deserve to be treated as such. Now will you please get out?"

"I wouldn't want to touch such the grease stain anyway sides, let's go." The golden one said. Phoenix narrowed her eyes at him. That one definitely needed a really heavy object to be thrown at his head. Maybe a shoe. Yeah, a really pointy high heel might teach him a lesson. Just as they left, Ratchet seemed to have the same idea, for he threw two wrenches at each of them. They both cursed and the golden whine started whining about his paint, but left quickly as Ratchet threatened him with another wrench. Phoenix just started laughing.

"Man that was priceless! Who are they anyway?" He gave her a slight smirk.

"They are Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, twin brothers. They can be a lot of trouble so I would suggest staying away from them while you are here." Phoenix nodded and waited as he ran more scans on her. They were quite tingly and felt weird but at least they were not painful. Then Jazz woke up.

"Ah man, ah feel like slag." Ratchet promptly grabbed another wrench and whacked him around the head with it.

"Language. And _don't move." _

"Sure thing Hatchet." He was smacked again with another wrench. Jazz saw her and grinned again. His smile in his robot form was similar to the one in his human form.

"How are ya?" he asked her, but before she could get a word in edgeways, Ratchet whacked him yet again. Jazz glared at him.

"Wha' was that for?!"

"How do you think the youngling is you irresponsible glitchhead?! You deliberately ignored protocol, broke your cover, endangered the life of a _youngling _and she had broken an arm and fractured two ribs because of your stupidity! And now, her parents and family are probably worried and….."

"Don't worry about that, my parents are dead." She told the medic bluntly. She didn't want Jazz in trouble because of her. After all, he had shown her nothing but kindness since she had met him. Nobody else had ever done that for her. Ratchet stopped talking abruptly.

"I am sorry." She waved his concerns away.

"Don't be, they died when I was a baby. It's not like I can remember them or anything and you can't miss what you never had." Heck, she didn't even know what they had looked like. She'd seen a picture once, a very long time ago but it had faded from her memory. She turned away and studied the wall, knowing that they were probably looking very sympathetic like most people did when they found out she had no parents. An awkward silence filled the room.

"Optimus Prime will be here to talk to you soon youngling."

"Who?"

"Tha's our leader. Ow!" Jazz input and was hit yet again.

"Be quiet and sit still Jazz! And yes, Jazz is right. Optimus Prime is the leader of the Autobots." Again, the doors slid open and Phoenix turned to find herself looking at a massive red and blue robot. Her mouth dropped open.

"Holy Shit, you're huge!" He chuckled at her disbelief. Optimus had to be as tall as a skyscraper or something, not that she had ever seen one, having never lived in a big city. He knelt down to her level and offered her a finger.

"My name is Optimus Prime. It is a pleasure to meet you." She reached up and shook his finger with her right hand.

"I'm Phoenix."

"Phoenix… an interesting name. I am here to ask how you met Autobot Jazz."

"Um, well I was walking in the woods near my childrens home and I went to my favourite place and he as just sitting there. So we talked for a bit and then he found out it was my birthday and offered to take me somewhere as I haven't really had a birthday before. So we went to the shops and then to a beach and then the decepticons came along so he told me he was an alien from Cybertron and protected me from the three guys who tried to kill us." She gabbled out quickly. He reminded her of a head teacher who would put you in detention if you didn't tell the truth. Although, Jazz would probably be the one getting the detention in this case.

"I see. You have my deepest apologies for your injuries." She waved him off.

"It's all good, I've been in fights before. Just not with a robot. What will happen to me now?"

"Captain Lennox is arranging for you to go back to the children's home when Ratchet has cleared you to leave." Phoenix was disappointed at that. It felt like a dream to be here with aliens, but although her arm was broken and her ribs cracked, she didn't want to go home. This was the first time she'd really experienced a world outside of a very mundane existence. Although, she couldn't really be surprised. They were secret aliens after all, hidden by the government. Optimus Prime turned to look at Ratchet.

"Is Jazz able to leave? I wish to speak with him in my office." Ratchet smiled in a very evil way.

"Oh, he'll be fine for awhile. Just send him straight back after." Prime nodded.

"Jazz, you will follow me to my office now."

"Okay Prime." Phoenix was quite worried actually. It sounded like Jazz was in deep shit. She really hoped he wouldn't get punished too harshly because of her. After all, he hadn't really done anything that bad. He had given her the once in a lifetime experience, and to her disappointment, it sounded like it would remain that way even though he had promised to see her again. She sighed, knowing he would probably be unable to keep that promise, but some small stupid part of her hoped just the same.

**A/N I hope you enjoyed this chapter, thank you for reading and please review! The next chapter will have Prime and Jazz from Jazz's POV and Phoenix will meet Captain Lennox. -AnAshBlackSword**


	4. Promises

**Jazz's POV**

Jazz knew he was in deep slag. He knew it from the moment he onlined. He could tell that the medic was just longing to offline him and he was lucky that he only got as many whacks as he did. When Prime came to take him to his office, he was expecting a pretty awful punishment and he guessed he deserved it really. Not for meeting Phoenix, but for endangering her and injuring her. He would probably get brig time, or no missions or washrack cleaning duty. The last thing he expected was for Prime to be sympathetic.

"So, what's mah punishment then?" Prime sighed deeply. He knew that Jazz was probably not sorry for having contact with the human youngling which meant that no matter what punishment he gave the saboteur, Jazz would not listen to him. He suspected he knew why Jazz had asked to leave base in the first place.

"Why did you ask the human to come with you Jazz? I understand why you talked to her in holoform as it was unavoidable, but by asking her to come with you, you endangered her life."

"Ah wanted to do somethin' nice for her. She's an orphan Prime, ah showed her the first kindness that she has seen in ah long time."

"Nevertheless, you broke protocol."

"So, punish meh." Jazz waited for the Prime to give him his punishment.

"Jazz, did you offer because of Prowl?" Jazz stiffened. No bot had mentioned his bond-brother since he had handed mudflap and skids their afts on a platter for annoying him about missing Prowl.

"No."

"Jazz, you should talk to Ratchet about it."

"No."

"Jazz, as my soldier, I would recommend you…"

"No Prime. No means no. Ah don't want to talk about it an' ah went because ah wanted a break. Ah did it because ah wanted to be kind" That was true. What Jazz wanted a break from was being around bots, they reminded him of Prowl and he did want to help her.

"Understood. Nevertheless, you understand you cannot have contact with the human again."

"Wha'?"

"Jazz, as much as I want the Autobots and humans to be allies, she is a youngling. The humans are very displeased with us for this and we have agreed to not contact her again for her own safety. It is understandable that they do not want a youngling to be in our war."

"But Prime…."

"No Jazz." Frag Prime and the humans! Frag them all. He didn't have to listen to their fragging protocol did he? He wasn't endangering her by visiting right? He had also made a promise and there was just something about the girl. She reminds you of Prowl. He pushed the thought aside with a vengeance. The human was nothing like Prowl. She acted the exact opposite to him. It's because she tried to help you without a second thought even though she could have died. She did that without a second thought so she is like Prowl, she is completely selfless which is….. Stop. He ended that trail of thoughts right there. She was nothing like Prowl, nothing at all.

"Okay Prime, but can ah say goodbye?"

"I will ask Captain Lennox but he should agree to it. As for punishment, I believe you have learned your lesson as she could have been offlined." Jazz nodded, but he was already thinking of how to keep contact with the human. An idea began to form in his head. Oh yes, he knew exactly what to do.

**Phoenix's POV**

Ratchet was carrying Phoenix to the "recreation room" where she would be meeting Captain Lennox who would escort her back to the children's home. She had been told that Jazz would be there, but then she would have no further contact with the Autobots for her own safety. Ratchet placed her down gently, and a tall soldier with hair and blue eyes came over. He smiled at her kindly.

"I guess it's time to get you home kiddo." Phoenix nodded, but the children's home had never been her home and never would be. "You know that you can't tell anyone about the Autobots okay?"

"Yeah."

"Just forget this ever happened I guess." As if. She thought to herself. As if that'll happen.

"I'll try."

"Jazz wants to say goodbye." She turned to the silver bot, knowing that she would never see him again.

"Hey again." He knelt down and offered her a hand to climb onto then lifted her up to his face. She noticed that he was a lot smaller than the other bots, but he was still pretty big.

"Hi. I'm sorry for getting you in trouble and thanks for the best birthday I've ever had."

"Ya welcome, it was mah pleasure." He said softly. She knew that she would never see him again and she felt like crying but that was stupid. Phoenix never cried. You lose people in life and she had learned to just move on. So why was Jazz different?

"I guess this is Goodbye."

"Ah guess. Can ah give ya a hug wit' my holoform? It'll be easier for meh."

"Okay." He placed her down again and activated his holoform. As he hugged her, he slipped a special phone he had modified into the pocket of her hoodie. She didn't notice, but hopefully she would later. He had written her a note telling her how to use it. "Goodbye Jazz, thanks for everything."

"Goodbye Phoenix." She pulled away before she did something really stupid, like cry. She turned to Ratchet.

"Thank you for helping me Ratchet."

"You are welcome young one." She turned to Captain Lennox who was watching her with a somewhat odd expression of curiosity and sympathy.

"I'm ready." He nodded and opened the door to his car. It was just a regular old car and Phoenix felt somewhat disappointed that she'd never be in a car that drove itself again. Lennox started the engine and they left. Jazz waited in the hangar until the car was long gone, taking Phoenix with it.

**Lennox's POV**

When they reached the home, Lennox looked at the place. It was an absolute dump and he found himself wishing that the higher-ups had allowed her to stay at base. He had brought the stuff Jazz had got her with them, but she shook her head when he offered it to her. The only thing she kept was the swimming costume and the clothes she had on.

"It'll just get stolen. Do you have a kid?"

"Yeah, a little girl called Annabelle."

"Give it to her then if she wants it." Lennox felt like shit. He didn't want to leave her here. It felt wrong to leave a child in this dump. They got out the car and he knocked on the door. It was opened by a man who introduced himself as Phil. Lennox told him that she had been attacked by a gang and that was why she had a broken arm. He nodded and it was obvious that he couldn't care less. Lennox looked at Phoenix. She seemed like a nice kid and this felt wrong.

"Goodbye Phoenix. I hope you recover soon." He said with sincerity.

"Goodbye Mr. Lennox. Thank you for driving me here."

"You're welcome." She nodded and went inside. Phil shut the door behind her and though every bone in his body was screaming at him to take her back to base, Lennox went back to his car and started the engine. He'd have to talk to Sarah later. His wife always knew what to say.

**Phoenix's POV**

Phoenix watched Captain Lennox drive off until she could no longer see him. Then she went upstairs into her room. Opening the door she looked around. A couple of other kids had trashed it again, but there wasn't much of value anyway. She still had her ipod and Jacket. The room looked small and boring. The kids were fighting again and she collapsed on the bed and sighed, thinking of Jazz. She'd almost been out of this place. Almost had a friend. Almost been able to live instead of just exist. But she would never see Jazz again, ever. A single tear slipped down her cheek and she brushed it away, horrified at herself for being weak. She was Phoenix and she did not cry. She took off the jacket and something fell out. Curiously, she picked it up. It was a phone, and on it was a note.

"Call me anytime, I'd like to see you again - Jazz" Phoenix laughed and hugged the note to her chest. Jazz was going against the rules to see her, and she would be going against the government to see him since she was supposed to never have contact with any Autobot again. She didn't care. Dialing the number, she gave it a ring and her heart leapt with joy as it was answered at the other end.

"Heya again Phoenix."

"Jazz, you sneaky bugger! Won't they find out?"

"Nah, ah'm a spy, hacker and saboteur amongst many things. No one will know."

"Why did you give this to me?"

"Ah always keep mah promises Phoenix, always."


	5. Pasta and Meatballs

**A/N I'm introducing the main villain at the end of this chapter :D I hope you are enjoying this story so far and in this chapter I have some Jazz and Phoenix bonding time. Thank you for reading and please review! -AnAshBlackSword**

**Phoenix's POV**

It was a school day and Phoenix was currently heading back from school. Although she was going to be quite late home and probably miss dinner, she was going to go to the forest. It had been a week since she had been taken back to the children's home and during that time, she regularly called and texted Jazz using the phone. She hadn't been back to the woods since meeting Jazz and she felt like going there today. She grinned as the phone vibrated in her pocket.

**Message from Jazz: How was school? **

She smiled and texted him back.

**Boring as usual, how was base? **

**Message from Jazz: Boring as well. Hatchet knocked out the twins. **

**Which ones? **

**Message from Jazz: Chevy twins, they were fighting again. **

**No surprise there. **

She noticed that she was almost at the tree again. Then she saw a holoform at the tree and knew instantly who it was.

"Jazz!" She ran over to him and pulled him into a hug. He was laughing. "Why didn't you tell me you would be here you slagger?" Phoenix had also picked up cybertronian curses from Jazz.

"Ah thought ah'd surprise ya." She grinned at him. "Ya wanna go somewhere?"

"Sure!" She was up for going anywhere. Literally anyway was better than here. They went to the car park where Jazz's alt mode was waiting. The holoform vanished and the door swung open on the passenger side. She climbed in, and the holoform reappeared in the driver's seat. Jazz scanned her to check her vitals. Her arm and ribs were healing well as were the various cuts and bruises. He noticed that she needed to refuel.

"Are ya hungry?" She rolled her eyes at him.

"I am _starving. _I don't eat school food because it's crap and the home food is even crappier."

"Do ya like…Italian food?" Jazz was curious about trying human food. They could have it, in small amounts.

"I don't know, I've never had good food before and I haven't eaten in a restaurant for years." Her foster homes had sucked at cooking. The meals were always microwaved. At the home, it was cook whatever rubbish they had in the cupboard or go without.

"Might as well try it then!" He said excitedly. She grinned, just as excited as he was. While they were driving, Jazz pulled her seat back so she could relax and switched the music to something he hoped she would like.

"Yeah! Skillet!" she fist pumped the air and then flopped back on the seat, wriggling around a bit. "Aaaah, this is so much comfier than the beds at the home." Phoenix noticed the car shaking a little.

"Tha' tickles!" Jazz said and she laughed again. Ticklish alien robot cars taking her to dinner? Yep, her world had officially gone crazy.

**Jazz's POV**

Jazz laughed as she squirmed against the seat. He was very ticklish, which was a fact many bots liked to tease the saboteur about although some had ended up welded to the ceiling of the ark when they had tried to tickle him. Needless to say, only Prowl had tried from then on. He mentally slapped himself for thinking about his brother.

**|| Sideswipe to Jazz, where are you? || **Jazz cursed as he received the comm.

**|| ah'm just on a drive. Why? ||**

**|| Hatchet wants you. ||**

**|| Slag! Can ya do meh ah favour an' distract him? ||**

**|| Are you with the mini squishy? || **Jazz debated whether to tell Sides. If he did then Sunny would know as well. Jazz decided he could trust the twins.

**|| Yeah, please don' tell anyone 'cept Sunny. || **He could almost hear Sides laughing.

**|| I won't, but can I hold it sometime? ||**

**|| Yeah, ah guess ya can. ||**

**|| Okay. I'll distract him for you. I've been meaning to play a prank on him for some time anyway. See you later, Sideswipe out. ||**

Jazz looked at Phoenix, who was oblivious to the conversation between him and Sides. He noticed that they were almost at the restaurant. He parked then opened the door for her.

"Here we are."

**Phoenix's POV **

Phoenix got quite nervous as they walked into the restaurant. It looked very posh and expensive and she'd never been anywhere half as nice as this place before. She hid her nervousness by mentally kicking herself. She'd faced bullies and home kids and assholes and freaking alien robots and she was nervous about a restaurant? Stupid. Jazz turned to her and offered his arm.

"There's nothin' to be scared 'bout."

"I am not scared." Jazz said nothing but Phoenix knew that he did not believe her. A smiling waitress came over and led them to a table, handing them the menu. Phoenix looked at it and burning with embarrassment, she realised that she didn't know what most of it was. She asked Jazz to describe the different foods to her and she ordered a very spicy pasta with meatballs. Jazz ordered the same thing as her as he wasn't really sure what anything tasted like.

When the food arrived, Phoenix took a bite out of it and her face lit up with pleasure.

"Mmm! This is the best thing I have ever tasted." Jazz looked at her brightly shining face.

"Ya should smile like tha' more often." She frowned in confusion.

"Smile like what?"

"Like ah sparklin' who just got candy." She flicked a bit of pasta at him and he chuckled. In all seriousness though, it was well worth leaving the base just to see her happy. She was just like a Cybertronian sparkling and Jazz remembered with fondness of the days before the war when he had worked with sparklings and younglings. It seemed that innocence was a trait all younglings shared, no matter what species. Phoenix grinned at Jazz as he tasted the spicy pasta.

"Do you like it?"

"Holy Primus! How do ya have so many flavours?!" She laughed at his face.

"I don't know really. Maybe it's because we grow our food? I guess you can't do that on Cybertron."

"This is amazin'!" After they had finished the meal, Jazz realised that he should probably take her back to the home and get back to base himself. He was reluctant to leave the small human, whom he now saw as a friend. Phoenix was also reluctant to go back, the home was lonely and cold at night, but she knew that Jazz should really get back to the base soon or risk having someone sent after him. She climbed into his alt mode.

"Ah enjoyed tha'."

"Me too."

"We should do tha' more often." Phoenix leaned back into the seat and shut her eyes, a soft smile on her face.

"We should."

**Jazz's POV**

Jazz's spark lit up again as she smiled again. It made her look younger and mentally, she was too old for her years. It sounded like she had never had a proper childhood. To Jazz, that was unacceptable. She had missed out on far too much and Jazz wanted to help her regain lost time and live properly for once. Maybe, he could even give her back the childhood she had missed.

"Do you have any family?" The sudden question startled him a little.

"Yeah, ah lost mah parents when ah was young, but ah have ah brother."

"What's he like?" Jazz found himself opening up and talking about Prowl. Something he had not done since Prowl had gone on that slagging mission to find Shockwave.

"Prowl was mah bestest friend. He was always there for meh an' he was the second in command of the Autobots. He's clever but bots call him ah tight-aft because he loves logic an' rules. He can seem cold sometimes, but he's funny and caring when ya get to know him." She smiled at him.

"Maybe you can introduce me someday."

"Ah'd like to do tha'." He didn't tell her that Prowl had been missing for over six vorns now and he hadn't felt anything from the bond since Prowl had left. Jazz realised that they had reached the street before the home so he opened his door and undid her seatbelt for her. "Here we are. Ah guess we should go."

"Probably." She didn't seem eager to leave either. "Thank you Jazz."

"It was mah pleasure Phoenix." He really didn't want her to go. He'd only known her a week but it felt like he was meeting Prowl all over again. Except the feelings were more like a creatorly protective feeling than a brotherly feeling. He wondered if it was a guardian bond, but that was impossible as Cybertronians couldn't bond with other species. The feeling was definitely there though.

"Are you okay?" Phoenix asked him.

"Yeah, ah'm just thinkin'."

"I'd better go."

"Yeah, ah'll text ya and see ya soon."

"Okay." She hugged his holoform before getting out the car and she walked in. The home would be locked and if she used the front door, there would be trouble. So she climbed the tree to the second floor corridor window which was always unlocked and entered the house.

Jazz used his infrared sensors to watch her and make sure she got in safely, the whole guardian bond thing going around in his mind. As far as he knew, only one mech would be able to help him with this and that would be Ironhide as he was the only mech with a guardian bond to Bumblebee and Arcee. There was no way in pit he was asking Ratchet. Speaking of that mech, hadn't he been wanted earlier? Cursing, he drove as fast as he could back to the base, hoping that Sideswipe's distraction had been a very good one or he was so slagged.

** Shockwave's POV **

Shockwave looked at the reports from Soundwave. He had asked Soundwave to locate the Autobot called Jazz. He wanted the mech brought to him as he had formed a very strong brother bond with the Autobot known as Prowl. He was interested in studying bonds between unrelated mechs and femmes and as he had one bond member captive, he only needed to obtain the other. However, he knew that Jazz would be hard to capture but this human femme might prove useful. If he took the femme then Jazz would try and rescue her and it would be easier to lure Jazz into a trap. Besides, he could do with a young human to study. He had some rather interesting experiments to test out on the humans and this one would do perfectly.

**|| Shockwave to decepticons, obtain the human femme alive and bring it to me. ||**


	6. Guardian Bond

**Jazz's POV**

Jazz decided he would seek out Ironhide as soon as possible, so after recharging he went to the training room where he knew the old mech would be. Sideswipe had actually knocked Ratchet out and then glued all the medic's tools to the ceiling of the medbay. As a result, Ratchet had been too busy trying to retrieve his tools when he onlined to remember that he wanted to check up on Jazz. Jazz chuckled to himself as he imagine the poor medic trying to retrieve the tools. He would have to thank Sideswipe somehow.

Jazz could here Ironhide's cannon fire outside of the training room and he knocked before entering just to make sure he wouldn't get accidentally shot. The last time that had happened had been rather painful.

"Come in!" A gruff voice called out. Jazz opened the door and went in. "What do you want Jazz? If you are wasting my time then this beauty here will be aimed at your aft plating."

"Ah have ah serious question 'hide. Can ya tell meh 'bout Guardian bonds?" Ironhide looked at him suspisciously.

"What do you want to know about them for?"

"Just curious." Ironhide snorted. Jazz was rarely only 'just curious' about things. But he decided to indulge the small mech anyway.

"Well what do you want to know? There's quite a lot."

"How it forms, what it feels like an' that."

"Walk with me to the rec. room and I'll tell you whilst I refuel." Jazz followed him there. "First of all, you have to be compatible with your charge. With Arcee and Bee I felt a very powerful over-protective feeling much like one would feel over their sparkling. Mine is more a parental guardian bond. However, the feelings differ from bond to bond. To be a Guardian is a very serious business Jazz. It means you will protect their life with your own and be whatever they need you to be. Arcee and Bee needed a creator so Chromia and I took the place of their creators."

"Ah think ah get it. So it varies from bot to bot but is a feeling of protectiveness. So much so that ya would sacrifice ya life for them?"

"Yes. There is also a ceremony before bonding. It is a very serious, old and well respected ritual." Jazz nodded, understanding more what Ironhide had said. He sighed inwardly though, as it was obvious that he would never be able to make a bond with Phoenix, who was only a human. The more he thought about it though, the more his spark seemed to be reaching out to her.

"Thank ya 'hide. Ah think ah get it now."

"You're welcome and if you acted as intelligent as this more often, I might consider not shooting you in the aft next time you prank me."

"Aw, it's nice to know somebot loves meh."

"Then again, intelligence is not your speciality. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some training to do." Jazz watched the mech go back to the training room, before deciding to go and see Phoenix about his. Even if he couldn't officially bond with her, he could still make the vows if she agreed to it. His spark seemed to warm at the idea of it.

**Phoenix's POV**

Phoenix was in an English lesson. Currently, she was daydreaming about a thousand and one different ways to kill Mr Miller, who was the creepiest and most boring teacher that had probably ever existed. She missed Jazz. She sighed and stared out of the window. Usually she would have rested her head on her arm, but it was broken and she had to write with the other one. Her ribs still hurt so she missed P.E. That was the only highlight of having a couple of cracked ribs. She wished they would hurry up and heal so she could go climb a tree already.

The bell went, disturbing her from her thoughts. She packed her things as fast as she could with one hand and went outside for a lunch break. Her back pocket vibrated and she smiled and pulled it out.

**Message from Jazz: I'm in the forest, can you miss school for today? I need to talk to you about something. **

**Sure. It's not like I'll be missing anything important anyway.**

**Message from Jazz: I'll meet you at the car park in the woods :)**

Phoenix rarely bunked off school actually. Although nobody cared if she bunked, if she failed school she would be stuck at the kid's home for longer. So she tried to pass her classes. She was good at Maths, Geography and Chemistry, average at Physics, but History and English and German were just horrible. She hated those subjects with a passion.

She smiled, headed for the back gate and left. The back gate was in a small wooded area meaning that no one spotted her and even if they had, all the teachers would do was tell the home. Who would do nothing anyway.

At the forest, Jazz was waiting for her in his holoform, smiling happily.

"What put you in such a good mood?" she asked him.

"Oh, ya know. Stuff an' things." She elbowed him playfully and he elbowed her back. "Ah know ah haven't known ya long, but ah wanted to ask somethin'"

"Shoot." She said.

"Well, on cybertron, we have this thing called ah guardian bond and we make in when we feel the need to protect a bot with our lives. Ah can't make ah bond wit' ya 'cause ya are not a bot, but if ya would be willing, ah would like to perform the vows." Phoenix looked at him wide-eyed.

"What do the vows mean?"

"That ah'll will protect ya wit' ma spark an' be whatever ya need me to be. So like ah parent or brother or friend." The full implications of what he was saying hit her in the chest. This meant that Jazz would be bound to protect with his life, no matter the consequences for him.

"Are you sure about this Jazz? I've only known you a week."

"Ah know, but mah spark is askin' me to."

"What vows would I have to make?"

"Um, the belonging one."

"The what?"

"Ah, so basically, ya are still ya own person an' that but ya kinda belong to meh in ah way. That and ya have to accept mah guardianship." That didn't sound like such a bad thing. It was an odd idea that you could almost own someone, but she was not Cybertronian.

"This is a big thing for you isn't it?"

"Yeah. It's ah lifelong commitment and if ah do this, then that means that none of mah friends can harm ya because that would be a direct challenge to meh."

"Oh okay. If you are sure you want to do this, then I would be honoured." He grinned at her and she felt a warm glow in her heart.

"Ah'm sure. Can we do it now?"

"Okay, but you'll have to teach me what to say." He nodded and Jazz led her to a small clearing in the forest.

"Ah guess ah'll say mine first."

"Ah Jazz, take Phoenix as my charge. In doin' this, ah vow to protect mah charge with ma spark an' be whatever mah charge requires of meh. Ah accept that this is ah lifelong commitment an' that any attack on mah charge is ah personal challenge to meh an' shall be treated as such. Ah ask that this bond would have the blessin' of Primus, until all are one." He looked at her and removed the sunglasses, revealing almost white eyes and Phoenix wondered if he could see without the glasses, much like she wondered if he could see without his visor. "Repeat after me."

"Ah, Phoenix."

"I Phoenix,"

"Take Jazz as mah guardian."

"Take Jazz as my guardian."

"In doin' this, ah vow to respect our bond with all mah spark. Ah understand that this is ah lifelong commitment an' that ah now belong to Jazz. Ah also understand that any attack on meh shall be ah challenge to mah guardian an' that my guardian will do whatever ah require of them. Ah ask that this bond shall have the blessin' of Primus, until all are one." She repeated his words carefully, then when she was done looked at him expectantly. Jazz smiled at her. "All done." She smiled back at him, understanding that what she had just done was an old and sacred ritual for Cybertronian and she vowed to respect it as such. What she did not know was the effect that it would have on the rest of her life.

Jazz stepped forward and wrapped her in a hug. She heard his alt mode approaching and turned as his holoform vanished again. He transformed out of his alt mode into bipedal mode and she tilted her head to look up at him. He offered her his hand and she climbed onto it. Jazz pulled her against his chest, or Chassis he had told her and a deep sounding rumble came from it.

"Mine." Was the only word that Jazz said.

"Yours." She agreed and placed a hand against his chassis roughly where his spark would be. Another rumble, and this one sounded approving, if it was even possible for a rumble to sound like that. She laughed suddenly. "Well this has been way better than school." Jazz chuckled with her.

"Ya wanna go anywhere?"

"Surprise me." She told him and he placed her down gently, transforming without hesitation. The door opened itself for her and Jazz fastened her seatbelt after she had climbed in.

"Ah'll take ya to ah cinema!"

"Really?!" She'd never been to a cinema or watched much TV so she was pretty excited at the thought of a giant moving screen. This was going to be awesome!

**Blackout's POV**

Blackout grinned to himself as the human and Jazz showed up on his sensors. The seeker had been ordered to fetch the human femme which wouldn't prove too difficult as she was injured and humans were weak, fragile and pathetic anyway. He dove down, preparing to engage in battle with Jazz as a distraction. He knew that Nightbomb would be able to them get the human without any difficulty.

**Jazz's POV**

Jazz cursed as his sensors warned him of an approaching seeker. Luckily, they were out in the countryside, near another forest and away from any humans. Phoenix could hide in the forest and she would be safe whilst he fought off blackout.

"Phoenix, there's ah decepticon. Ah need ya to get out an' run for the forest an' hide 'til ah come an get ya. An' this time, ah mean stay hidden an' don' break ya cover even if ah am injured." Her fear levels spiked rapidly but she gripped the seat and nodded. He pulled over and opened the door. She got out and he transformed. He gently stroked her face with a metal digit.

"Run, an' don' stop." She hugged his finger.

"Stay safe, please." Then she ran for the woods as fast as she could with her injuries. Jazz commed the others and was informed that they were en-route, but they would be another half hour. Jazz gritted his teeth as blackout landed and transformed. Hopefully he could either offline Blackout himself or hold him off for that long.

He activated his blades and threw himself at Blackout who had a pair of chainsaws much like Ratchets. Jazz knew that Blackout would be aiming to severe his main energon lines with those saws, and if that happened then he was as good as slagged. He dodged to the left, and then to the right, backstepped, feinted left and then twirled and gave Blackout a nasty cut to his right side. Blackout got him in the back with the saws but it only left a scratch mark and missed the cracks in his armour.

He backflipped backwards twice, activated his cannons and fired at Blackout, who dogded and return fire with his own cannons. Jazz dogded them and activated the blades once more, but Blackout knocked him over with a swift blow to the chassis. By Primus, that mech was strong! Cursing he fired at Blackout, who stepped backwards. It had caught him in his right side and Jazz smiled savagely. Then his scanners alerted him of an incoming decepticon, however it flew over him and for the forest. _Phoenix. _He thought blindly and turned to run for the forest but was pinned down by a snarling Blackout.

"No you don't. Don't you want to finish out little game autoscum?" Jazz snarled and tried to scratch him with the blades. He commed the others desperately but they were still 15 minutes away. He could only hope that his charge was well hidden.


	7. Scalpel the spider

**Sorry it's been awhile since I updated, I've been on holiday, but now I'm back so I'll be updating regularly again. Thank you all for your reviews and support with this story! I hope you enjoy this chapter, please review! - AnAshBlackSword. **

**Update: Sorry about the lack of paragraph breaks. I've been having some issues uploading this chapter, but it should be fixed now.**

**Phoenix's POV**

Phoenix ran as fast as she could manage with her arm and ribs, cursing them all the while. At the forest's edge she turned and saw Jazz fighting the decepticon. She hoped that Jazz cut the evil bastard to pieces.

Turning back around she ran on, then she saw a thick bush and scrambled through it to roughly the centre. She hid there, hoping she was safe. Then she heard heavy footfalls nearby and hoped it was Jazz.

"Come out, come out fleshy!" Not Jazz then. She placed her hand over her mouth in an attempt to breathe quieter so he couldn't hear her. "I want to play with you meatbag!" She heard him uprooting trees and other bushes nearby and screamed as the bush she was hiding under was ripped out of the ground, leaving staring straight into the face of an evilly grinning decepticon.

Dodging his hand, she ran between his legs and tried to run away, but she wasn't fast enough and her ribs felt like they were on fire. She screamed again as she was grabbed in his black claws.

"Jazz! Help me! Anybody help me please!" There was no answer and the mech placed a finger over her mouth, muffling her cries for help.

"Sssh now, no need for that. I'm not going to hurt you, that's Shockwave's job." He transformed and she struggled in the seat desperately as the seatbelt fastened around her. She was in the passengers seat to a plane. A holoform materialised next to her and reached for a syringe with a needle.

"Don't you dare!" She writhed again and tried to move away as he reached for her.

"Awww, poor pathetic little meatbag." In response, she gathered up a mouthful of spit and saliva and spat it into his face.

"Fuck you!" She cursed him. A look of rage appeared on his face and he wiped it off and growled at her, then smacked her across the cheek. She would have a spectacular bruise there later.

"This should shut you up, fleshy scum!" He injected the needle into her and she felt her consciousness fading as she was plunged into darkness.

**Blackout's POV**

Blackout watched Jazz smile as he pinned down him again, but then Jazz heard the human femme scream in terror. Blackout took advantage of his opponents distraction and flipped him over, reversing their positions, gaining the upper hand. Then, he saw the other Autobots approaching and commed Nightbomb, hoping the other mech had the fleshling. He turned to Jazz as the other Autobots approached.

"Stand down Blackout!" Optimus Prime ordered. Blackout de-activated his weapons.

"As you say Prime, but Shockwave has a message for Jazz here. If he ever wants to see his little fleshy pet again, then he should come to these coordinates alone. Shockwave will release the girl for Jazz's capture. No exceptions." Turning around and transforming, he heard Jazz's outraged cry as he took off.

**Jazz's POV**

Jazz cursed Blackout in his native tongue of Polyhexian as he watched the mech fly away. He took a scan of the area to see if he could detect Phoenix's heat signature in case Blackout had been bluffing, but he had not. His charge had been taken to Shockwave. He called him the foulest word he could think of, vowed revenge on Shockwave and Blackout then turned to the others.

Optimus Prime was watching him gravely, along with Ratchet, the Lamborghini twins and Ironhide. The others must be back at base. "What did he mean by 'human pet' Jazz?" Optimus Prime asked.

"Ah made friends with Phoenix, ah've been in contact with her." The others gave him an odd look and Jazz cursed himself as he realised he was still speaking his native tongue. He repeated the sentence in Iaconian and Ratchet stepped forward with a wrench raised, but Optimus held the medic back.

"Explain Jazz." "Ah wanted to be in contact wit' her. She needs ah friend Prime. Ah did what ah felt was right."

"You Primus fragging idiot Jazz!" The twins said in unison. Prime sighed and rubbed his faceplate, secretly agreeing with the twins.

"Jazz, you have broken orders and you will be severely punished and will return to the base with Ratchet for medical attention. Twins, Ironhide, we will contact arcee, Jolt and Bumblebee to help us storm Shockwaves base and recover the human youngling." Optimus said. Jazz groaned as protests against that order sprung up in his processor.

"Ah can't do tha' Prime." Optimus stiffened at being directly defied by his TIC and head saboteur.

"Why not Jazz?" "Ah took the youngling as mah charge. The vow dictates tha' any attack on her is a direct challenge to meh an' ah must uphold the vow an' recover her maself an' punish the mechs responsible."

The atmosphere turned grave as everyone comprehended what Jazz had just said. Jazz jumped slightly as Ratchet growled at Jazz in his native tongue. Ratchet had been sparked to one of the tribes of the sea of rust and his language was not recorded anywhere as it was old as well. Ratchet was the oldest of them all and for him to curse in his native tongue meant he had angered the medic beyond reason. He. was. so. scrapped. Ironhide watched Jazz calmly as the twins and Ratchet cursed him.

"Silence." Ironhide ordered them. "Did you make the guardianship vows Jazz?" Jazz nodded once. Ironhide's expression turned grim. "Then, you must go after her, or you will lose your honour." He turned to Prime and Ratchet. "To prevent Jazz from going would disgrace him beyond belief and the law dictates that the Prime must honour the guardianship vows. You must let him go after his charge, alone." Jazz looked to Optimus to see how the mech would respond.

"I know this."Optimus replied. "The matrix is telling me to honour Jazz's vow and as such, I must do what is required. Jazz, you will go after your charge after you have received medical care from Ratchet. Any mech who tries to prevent Jazz will be disgracing Jazz's honour and shall be punished as such. No one shall accompany Jazz as he is responsible for his charge. Are we understood?" Nods and grunts of acknowledgement. Even from Ratchet, but Jazz knew the medical care would have to be quick. His spark was screaming at him to go after her right now and it was a struggle not to obey the coding and leave immediately.

Ratchet grabbed Jazz and waved a wrench at him. "I'll do a field patch job. It will do until you return, and when you return understand that I am going to offline you, slowly and painfully." Jazz said nothing and nodded, knowing the medic meant it. Ratchet still wasn't done though. "You've endangered a youngling, Jazz and if it wasn't a disgrace to your honour, I would beat you within an inch of being offlined."

Jazz had the good sense to lower his head and look ashamed, but he had a million questions running through his processor. For Ratchet to be so overprotective of sparklings, he must have had one or had a sibling that was offlined or missing. He had royally pissed the medic off, and as such he would pay for it later.

His thoughts returned to his charge. He hoped shockwave wouldn't do anything to her, for his own sake or he would offline that mech where he stood.

**Phoenix's POV** Phoenix awoke restrained to another giant metal table in another large room. Only this room was dark, not lit up and there were no friendly medics here. Her cheek still smarted from where she'd been slapped by the mech. She struggled and considered calling out, but decided against it as she probably didn't want people to know she was awake.

She hoped Jazz would come for her. He was her guardian right? So he had to come after her, because of the vow. It was more a question of when he would come for her.

Then, there was another horrible grating noise and a large purple mech with one red optic hovered over her. A rush of fear ran through her. Oh yeah, she was in deep shit. "Where am I?" No answer. "I said, where am I you deafhead?!" Still no answer. Well, what was she expecting? These guys were evil. The purple bot placed down a spidery looking bot. She was not afraid of spiders, in fact she rather liked them but this spider-bot was freaky!

"Scalpel, examine the specimen."

"Yes, at vonce ve shall examine ze human." The spider jumped onto her and she squirmed in discomfort.

"Get the hell off ofa me you little bugger!" He ignored her and continued crawling on her body, making her wish she had a supersized bug swatter. "Hmmm, ze specimen is healthy for ze procedure." Procedure?! She was no experiment!

"Excellent, continue with the surgery as planned. Keep the human alive." The purple bot turned and left the room and she was left with scalpel the spider.

"What are you going do?" she asked him, sounding a bit too scared for her own liking. He chuckled at her fear. Scalpel enjoyed experiments more when the subject was responsive, it made it more interesting.

"Ve are going to mix blood with ze energon." Energon. Wasn't that the fuel stuff Jazz had mentioned? So they were going to experiment on her?! No way in hell! As she was in no position to make threats, she told him what she thought would scare him the most.

"Jazz will offline you, you little creep!" _And, I'll make sure it's slow and super painful _she vowed in her head.

"Ve vill see." Eugh. Less than five minutes since meeting scalpel and she already hated his guts. She felt another rush of fear as he brought out a wickedly sharp blade from one of his spider limbs. The energon was brought over and another rush of fear ran through her, causing slight shivers.

Scalpel made an odd sound that should have been a laugh, but it was far too twisted. "Scared, is ve?" Not trusting herself to answer 'No', she clamped her mouth shut. Scalpel would get no screams out of her. But, that resolution was to be short lived,as the knife went deep into her skin and she cried out from the pain.

She was helpless against the little spider-bot, the best she could do was not move and hope she wouldn't die. The loss of blood was already making her dizzy, and she struggled to not feint from it. Then, Scalpel brought out the energon, and injected it straight into her open wounds which he had made.

The smell of burning flesh filled the room and she screamed with both terror and pain. The energon was literally melting her insides. She screamed like she was possessed by the most unearthly demons until she finally collapsed from pain and bloodloss, praying that if any God or higher being at all existed, that they would send Jazz to save her from the claws of the Scalpel.


	8. Meet Prowl

**Sorry about the uploading issues last chapter! I'd like to thank Fandom Jumping Expert for pointing that out otherwise I probably wouldn't have noticed! XD Thank you also to , SunnySides, Keelan, emzydattffan and other guests for your reviews. Your support for this story really means a lot to me, and I'm bringing Prowl into the story now so expect more of him in future! I hope you enjoy it, and here's hoping for no upload issues! – AnAshBlackSword**

Phoenix's eyes fluttered open weakly. She was no longer strapped to the table, instead she was chained to a wall, but at least Scalpel was gone. Everything was on fire, the places where scalpel had cut her were the most painful and she guessed that the energon had given her a chemical burn. She was also thirsty. Really thirsty. Wishing for some water, she returned to complaining in her head about the various injuries. At least it was dark so she could not see the extent of her injuries and freak out.

An odd clanging noise disturbed the silence in the room. Stiffening, she stared hard into the gloom and could make out a large foot. It was probably another prisoner, although Jazz hadn't mentioned any Autobots that the decepticons had captured.

"Hello? Who's there?" She called out. Another clanging noise and the foot moved backwards.

"My designation is Prowl, Second in Command of the Autobots and Head Tactician." Prowl?! That was Jazz's brother he had mentioned once or twice, the one that was supposed to be missing. "What is your designation?"

"Um, my name is Phoenix and I'm a um human."

"Nice to meet you Phoenix, considering the …. Regrettable predicament we seem to be in." Another silence fell over the room.

"Your brother is my guardian." She told him. There was another clanging sound, maybe he was also chained to the wall like she was.

"You have seen Jazz? Is he okay?" The voice seemed to become sharper and more interested, it also sounded less formal than it had before.

"I think so, I mean we got attacked by some decepticreeps so I don't know if he is injured or not."

"And…you are his charge?"

"Yeah, we did the whole vow thing although we can't make a whatsamacallit …a sparkbond."

**Prowl's POV**

Prowl had been trapped in the decepticon warship for a long time now. His chronometer had been broken by either scalpel or shockwave, leaving him with no perception of time. He estimated that he had been on here for a few vorns now.

He knew they were on earth as Scalpel had gleefully told him at some point. The native lifeform, the human showed up as being severely wounded on his almost broken scanners, it would probably offline without the correct medical attention. To hear the human say it was his brother's charge …Prowl did not know what to think about that. He wasn't even sure that was possible, or allowed, but the human seemed to be telling the truth, so he had to try and prevent it from offlining if he could.

He wished he could feel his brother through their sparkbond, but that pit-spawn Shockwave had placed some kind of dampener on him he guessed, as he hadn't felt Jazz since the experiments had started.

"So this planet is earth. What is it like?" He wondered if talking would keep the human from offlining. He had to try anyway.

"Oh, its um, well I don't really know how to describe it if you've never seen it."

"What are humans like?"

"Well, I'm halfway between Jazz's ankle and his kneecap, so I don't now how tall you are, but we are probably quite small in comparison. We aren't made of metal, and we don't live very long. Jazz said it was one vorn or something." He could tell the human was small and organic from his scans, but he needed to keep her talking and only one vorn?! By Primus, that was an incredibly short lifespan. "How long have we been here?" the human suddenly asked.

"I do not know, my chronometer is damaged."

"Oh." Another silence. "What colour are you?"

"I was black and white, but I imagine I probably don't look that good right now. What colour are you?" The human laughed as his question and he didn't understand what was so funny.

"Humans? We are all kinds of colours, mainly a very pale pink flesh colour, but we have different eye colours and hair colours." The hair must be the material on top of its head.

"Why are you laughing?" Prowl asked, perplexed at its amusement. Surely all humans had colours? Nothing was colourless.

"You don't generally ask humans what colour they are, it's an odd question." It was Prowl's turn to be silent, but just as he opened his lipplates to speak, a loud alarm went off outside the room.

"What is that noise?"

"I believe that is the warship's alarm, warning the decepticons of any intruders."

"Could it be Jazz?"

"Possibly." Prowl answered, daring for the first time in what felt like decavorns to hope that he could see his brother again.

**Jazz's POV**

After having Ratchet fix him up as best as the medic could, Jazz had left immediately for the co-ordinates and found a decepticon warship in a place known as 'Death Valley, Nevada.' It had been hidden with a cloaking device, and that fact that no humans lived here as the environment was too extreme for them to survive in.

The ship had been fairly easy to infiltrate, and he had used his small size to crawl through a vent. After spotting the nearest access point, he had hacked the main framework and downloaded the co-ordinates of Phoenix's location, only to find that Prowl was in the same cell as her. Shock ran through his processor.

His brother was on board? Why hadn't he felt him? How long had Prowl been there for? What had Shockwave done to him? His thoughts were interrupted as the alarms went off, having sensed him hack the mainframe. Moving fast, he escaped back into the vent and set off along the direction that would take him to Prowl and Phoenix.

When he was above the cell, he blasted a hole in the roof and jumped down. The light coming in from the vent showed that Phoenix was in a critical condition, and Prowl was not much better. Both were in danger of offlining soon if he did not get them out, although by the look of them, it was going to be a lot harder getting out than getting in.

"Jazz!" Phoenix said, smiling up at him.

"Heya Phoenix, hey Prowler."

"My designation is Prowl." Prowl's voice sounded odd, as though he might be about to cry.

"Ah know, ah know. Let's get ya guys outta here. Prowler, can ya crawl?"

"I believe I can."

"Good." He used his blades to remove the chains from his brother and then from Phoenix. There would be time for reunions later, after they got off this pit-spawn of a ship. Jazz gave Prowl a leg up into the vent, and hearing the sound of approaching decepticons, he gently picked up Phoenix, who yelped in pain.

Climbing through the vent, he and Prowl crawled as fast as they could to the nearest point where they could exit the ship. Jazz hoped that no decepticons were outside the ship today and that they were all preoccupied with searching the ship for the infiltrator.

He scanned both of them again, Prowl was running so low on energon it was a miracle the mech had not fallen into emergency statis already and his charge was in danger of offlining as well.

"Stay awake for meh, both of ya."

"Acknowledged." Prowl replied wearily and Phoenix made a noise of acknowledgement as well. "We are almos' there now."

At the exit point, Prowl more fell than jumped out of the vent.

"Can ya transform?"

"No." Prowl replied, and Jazz took his brother's arm and placed it around his shoulder so Prowl could lean on him. They walked as fast as they could away from the decepticon warship and took shelter behind a large boulder. Jazz had a cloaking device, but Prowl did not, so he attached the device to Prowl as well. It would shield them from the decepticons.

Phoenix had collapsed and Jazz commed Ratchet and the others, hoping they would get here soon. He pulled out some medical equipment from his subspace, Ratchet had taught him how to do an emergency energon transfusion and he would have to do that with Prowl to stop his brother from offlining.

"Ah need to do an energon transfusion on ya." He told Prowl, who was too tired to protest. He did the transfusion, which left him weaker, but brought Prowl's energon levels up to just above 15%, which was an improvement over the previous 6%. As for his charge, he knew little about human medicine and treatment so he would have to wait for Ratchet. He could take revenge on the decepticons later, what mattered now was that she was safe.

Prowl leaned against Jazz's shoulder and Phoenix curled into his hand even more. Far off in the distance, there was the sound of a wailing siren.


	9. The sorrows of war

**No Phoenix in this chapter, I wanted to focus on Prowl and Jazz for a bit, but she'll be back next chapter, I promise! Thank you all for your support with this story, shout outs to autobotgirlforever, Bee4ever, , BIackrose13, Autobot 7 and Fandom Jumping Expert to reviewing and to everyone who has favourited/followed this story, I appreciate it! **

**With that said, I hope you enjoy this next chapter ****J**

**-AnAshBlackSword**

**Ratchet's POV**

Ratchet went straight into his calm medic mode as he always did when lives were on the line. There would be time to kill Jazz later, but right now the medic could not afford to let his emotions get the better of him. Scanning both Phoenix and Prowl, he found that both were in critical condition and both were in high danger of offlining.

"Jolt, tend to Prowl." He'd have to attend Phoenix as he knew more about human biology than Jolt. He stayed in alt mode, but used his holoform to lift her into the back of it where he kept human medicine and supplies that were usually used for treating the nest time. He wished his apprentice, Mikaela was here. She would have been helpful in this situation.

Taking another scan, the medic found high traces of energon in Phoenix's bloodstream, which would explain for the various odd burns on her body, however he was unsure about how to remove it. To do that, he would have to remove her blood as well and she was already weak from blood loss. He would have to take her back to base and give her a blood transfusion, the only thing was, would she make it back to base? He'd have to pray to Primus that she did.

**|| I'm taking her back to base. Bring back Prowl whenever you can move him. Comm me if there is any change in his condition, Jolt. ||** He announced over the public channel. There was an affirmation from Prime and Ratchet sped off, sirens blaring.

**Jazz's POV **

He watched as Ratchet drove off with his charge, spark torn between staying with Prowl or going after Phoenix. A hand rested on his shoulder and he turned to see Ironhide staring down at him with a knowing expression.

"Stay with Prowl, there's nothing you can do for her right now. Ratchet knows more about human biology than any of us." Ironhide said gruffly and Jazz sighed, accepting that he was right. Turning back to Jolt he asked the junior medic if he could do anything.

Jolt looked up, scanned Jazz and shook his head.

"Refuel and rest, I need to stabilise him before he is moved and you're in no condition to do anything right now." Prime took an energon cube out of subspace and handed it to Jazz, who downed it almost immediately. Now there was nothing to do but wait….

**A few hours later, Prowl's POV**

**_System rebooting…_**

**_Diagnosis: Impaired but functioning_**

**_Damage: Major_**

**_Scanners: Compromised _**

**_Energy Levels: 45% _**

**_Would you like to online? _**

Prowl did online, to what was obviously the new med bay of the Autobots. Jolt placed a hand on his shoulder, keeping him from getting up.

"Don't move, you might tear some of the welds open and your energy levels are still low." Prowl accepted this and stayed lying down on the medical berth. His optics looked around, it was bright in here, although he supposed that might be because he had been in the dark interior of the Decepticon Warship for Primus knows how long.

The human, Phoenix was being operated on by Ratchet's holoform and another human female that he supposed must be of Ratchet's apprentices. He noticed that Phoenix was rather small compared to him, and that she did not have 'colours' as cybertronians did, but rather an odd colour scheme consisting of many different colours that was not regular, like cybertronians either.

"Fraggit!" Ratchet growled as the monitors dropped again, showing that the human had offlined. A strange electronic device was used to shock Phoenix, and the monitors came alive again. His scanners were compromised, but part of the damage had been repaired and he was able to gain some information on Phoenix.

His brother's charge was fragile, in cybertronian terms. If stepped on, it would offline immediately, if shot by a cannon, it would offline immediately and basically, would offline with quite a lot of ease! It was fragile, and weak he decided and he could not think for the life of him why Jazz would take one of these creatures as his charge. They would almost certainly be offlined! Speaking of Jazz…

"Where is Jazz, Jolt?"

"Ratchet locked the med bay doors, he freaked out after the human offlined and you nearly did as well. He will be allowed in when both of you are stable." Jolt turned and picked up a painkiller, before injecting it into Prowl and then repairing some of the damage below his spark chamber. "I don't even know how to begin with some of your damage Prowl, all these wires are so fragged up. Most are missing and the ones that are there, are in the wrong place, connecting the most useless things!"

"Shockwave was has unfortunately developed an interest in bonds." Jolt nodded, understanding the implications of such a statement. "Will I be able to rebond with Jazz?"

"You can't feel him through your bond? At all?"

"No. I have not been able to feel anything for awhile, he is there and I know it….it's just.." Prowl was at a loss for words to explain. "I just can't talk to him, there's something preventing me from doing so."

"I'll ask Ratchet to take a look at your Spark Chamber when he has finished with the human sparkling." That caught Prowl's attention.

"It's a sparkling?"

"Technically, a youngling but we call Mikaela, the human helping Ratchet a youngling and it is younger than them. Bumblebee is 170 vorns, it's about the equivalent to being two vorns younger than that." Prowl felt sorrow, their war was now not only affecting sparklings and younglings of their species, but of other species too.

"War truly is unfair." He murmured. Jolt inclined his head and returned to untangling the wiring in Prowl's spark chamber. Prowl's thoughts drifted back to Jazz, and he wondered where his brother was.

**Jazz's POV**

He had been pacing since Ratchet had asked Sideswipe and Sunstreaker to remove him from the medbay. He meant it was for the best of both his brother and his charge, but that didn't mean he had to like it.

"Can you stop that already?" Sideswipe asked, exasperated with the constant back and forth of comrade.

"Ah'll stop when ah'm in that med bay, an' ah can see for mahself that they are alrigh'." Sideswipe opened his mouth to whine, but was stopped by a mental prod from Sunstreaker.

**:: It's his brother and charge in their bro. You'd do the same if it were me. ::** Sunstreaker told him and Sideswipe sighed and refrained from speaking. Ironhide and Prime were obviously discussing something on a private comm line and Jazz knew that it was probably about his punishment for having further contact with Phoenix when it had been strictly forbidden.

**|| If ya are discussin' puttin' meh in the brig, can ya wait until I see them, an' ah'll go peacefully? || **He commed both mechs.

**|| I will agree to that Jazz, as long as you do go peacefully afterwards. Ironhide and I are discussing how to manage the humans when they find out about this. You have caused major complications for us, and they will only grow as you have taken this human as your charge. || ** Prime replied and Jazz shifted from foot to foot, a rather younglingish habit he had never grown out of. It reminded Prime how young some of his soldiers truly were, and he once again felt sorrow at how fast war had made some mechs grow up. Jazz was only around 200 vorns old, and Bumblebee was even younger.

**|| Ah'm sorry Prime. Ah did what mah spark told meh to do. || **

**|| I understand, but you will still be punished as such. ||**

**|| Ah would expect nothin' less. || **Prime accepted Jazz's apology for what it was, an apology for the inconvenience and the consequences but not for contacting the human.

Jazz resumed his pacing, but them Jolt opened the med bay doors.

"You can see Prowl, he is stable. However, Ratchet has just taken your charge into the operating room with Mikaela."

"Alrigh'" Jazz followed Jolt to Prowl.

"Hey again Prowler, how are ya now?"

"My condition is improving." It was awkward not communicating with Prowl through the bond when his brother was right there. It was more than awkward, it was driving him nuts. Prowl seemed to catch on to this. "Shockwave has been … experimenting on my spark. I do not yet know the full extent of the damage." Jolt turned around, frustrated.

"I don't even know what half of this rearranging is for! It's so Primus slagging illogical, I barely know where to start without accidentally putting you in danger of offlining!" Jolt returned to his wiring box, looking for various parts he would need to attempt fixing Prowl.

"Will we be able to rebond?" Jazz asked him.

"I don't know." There was no way to respond to that statement. Jazz turned back to Prowl. "Don't you even dare to try Jazz, you might offline him." Jazz glared at Jolt's back. Fragging medic was apparently psychic too. Prowl smiled weakly at Jazz, and it almost broke his spark.

"Whatever happens, ya will always be mah brother Prowler."

"And you will always be mine." Another sparkbreaking smile. "It is illogical to not hope Jazz."

"Ah know, Prowler."

"Jazz?"

"Hmm?"

"Love you, bro."

"Love ya too, 'til all are one."

"'til all are one."


	10. Who are you?

Phoenix opens her eyes to bright blue sky, which is odd because she could have sworn she went back inside her room last night instead of sleeping on the care home roof again. Apparently not. Groaning, she sits up and finds herself on the edge of a giant metal cliff.

"What the hell?!" She yelps, moving away from the cliff edge. Then, the memories come flooding back. Jazz, Prowl, the rescue.

And Scalpel.

Wincing, she checks that she can move before looking over the cliff edge to a giant sea of….well… metal. She realises that this is the sea of rust that Jazz was talking about and she marvels at it, before wondering what the heck she is doing on Cybertron. It certainly is pretty damn impressive.

"Hello child." Comes a voice from behind her, and she jumps before swivelling to look up at a tall, pink and obviously female robot.

"Uh, Hi. Who are you?"

"I am an Autobot leader who has joined the Well of Sparks."

"Okay…. Why are we here of all places?" She's confused now, did scalpel kill her? Is she actually dead at the young age of 15? Well, if she is then that definitely puts a major crimp in her day.

"Primus has chosen me to be your guide. I asked to bring you here because I thought you would like to see the place your guardian described." Phoenix looks at the sea again, and decides that it is quite a good view. She's seeing something most people don't even realise exist and it's on another planet for God's sake. Shame she might not be alive to tell them about it.

"Right… so I'm not dead then?" She asks hopefully.

"No, just in a Coma."

"Oh, goodie." She says sarcastically. An improvement over death, but not by much. She looks back at the female 'bot again. "So why am I here?"

"I am here to give you a gift which will help you on your journey. Primus has chosen you for great things." This 'bot sure loves to speak in riddles, she reflects wryly.

"In case you haven't noticed lady, I'm not exactly the same species and I'm not the ideal choice. I live in a care home, I get in fights and I'm not the nicest of people. So why me?" The 'bot smiles at her.

"It is your destiny, Primus has seen that you will end the war and bring peace to both our species and to your own." So, this 'bot is convinced that she is basically the saviour of robot-kind. This is definitely a step-up from where she was a few weeks ago, in a care home with no prospect and no future, although she thinks that 'Primus' may be a little crazy if he wants her to bring peace. From her experience with the care home kids and the kids at school, she's generally better at making war.

"Alright then, so how exactly do I do that?"

"You must decide that for yourself, I am merely here for guidance. Now, I shall give you a gift." With that, she touches her finger to Phoenix's arm and Phoenix feels something burn into her skin which writhes and forms black characters on her arm that are obviously Cybertronian.

"Ow! You could have warned me!"

"Then you may not have accepted." Grumbling, she nurses her sore arm and studies the characters again.

"What does it mean and what will it do?"

"It is a very ancient name-glyph of a spark who died long before her time was due. It will keep you safe and protected once it has been recognised. I also have this for you." A bracelet appeared around her wrist with more glyphs on it. "That is my name and it will prevent them from being suspicious of you." The she-bot that Jazz said was called a femme looks across the metal sea. "Now, you must return to your own world, time is growing short." At that a portal appeared and the 'bot turned to go, when a question came to Phoenix.

"Wait! What is your name?" The 'bot turned and smiled before speaking softly.

"I have several names, but the one known by many was Elita-1." Then, she walked into the portal without a backwards glance and the world lurched sideways.

"This is getting seriously old." She grumbled as she came to on yet another metal table, although this time it was one that she recognised. Ratchet's med-bay! Sitting up, she looked around and saw that it was indeed the Autobot base.

"Lie down." Said an approaching figure with blondish brown hair and green eyes that looked around 40. She smiled at the voice, for she recognised it immediately.

"Ratchet! Man, am I glad to see you!"

"I said, lie down youngling." He repeated again. "You have once again sustained heavy injuries and nearly offlined three times."

"Oh. Guess that explains why I feel like I got hit with a machete, a truck and then a bloody spaceship." She was aching all over yet again, obviously from the things that the little spider-bot had done to her. Then, she found that her arm was aching less than before. Curiously, she sat up and looked at it.

Utter shock ran through her body.

It was made of metal.

"Holy shit! What happened to my arm?!" She cried in surprise and Ratchet placed his hand on her shoulder, forcing her to lie back down.

"Calm down young one. I am sorry, but the energon scalpel injected into you burnt most of your nerves, muscle and most of the bone in your arm away. It was irreparable and so I had no choice but to amputate it." He said gently, knowing that this would be hard to process. She looked from Ratchet to the arm again, and inspected it.

"Okay, but why is there a metal arm there then?"

"I have given you the equivalent to a Cybertronian limb, made of a rare metal found on earth that is attached to your nerves. It will work the same as your actual arm, it is just…."

"Metal and weird looking."

"Precisely. Other damage was various cuts and bruises on your body and burns in places where scalpel experimented with energon." This day just kept getting better. Phoenix tried not to think about the fact that she didn't have a bloody arm now, and had a weird metal limb instead. She blinked back tears and looked up at the medic again.

"Can I see Jazz?"

"Jazz is currently in the brig, you may see him when Ironhide brings him up in approximately half an hour."

"Oh, is Prowl okay? He made it right?"

"Prowl is online and functioning although Shockwave and Scalpel may have caused irreparable damage to his spark chamber. You may see him later when Jazz arrives, but he is currently resting."

"Okay." She said and waited for the medic to finish injecting something into her arm which was probably a painkiller. Sure enough, some of the pain in her body managed, although the feeling of discomfort in her metal limb remained.

"I guess I can't really go back to the care home with this arm now can I?"

"No…. Optimus Prime will be visiting before Jazz and Prowl to inform you of what will happen now. Your government want to take you into their custody but the Autobots believe this is not the best solution." She didn't think becoming a government experiment was the best idea either. It certainly wasn't what she had planned for herself. Being a lab-rat was definitely not on the top of her to-do list.

"I agree I guess. So what happens now?"

"For now, you shall remain in my med-bay until I see it fit for you to leave and even then I shall keep an eye on you for a few weeks to make sure the energon does no further damage. Now, Optimus is outside the door. Are you feeling well enough to sit?"

"Yes." She replied, and sat up again. Optimus came in and she looked up at his towering body, reminding herself that he was pretty tall, to say the least. He knelt down beside the medical table until he was at her eye level.

"Hello again Phoenix."

"Hi there."

"I am sorry that we must meet in such circumstances. I did not mean for you to become mixed up in our war." His tone was full of regret and she smiled weakly at him, trying to ignore the twinge in her arm as she did so.

"That's okay, things happen sometimes." Like losing an arm. And, if Elita was right then there is no way anyone could have prevented this.

"Now we must discuss what will happen to you. We wish for you to remain near the Autobots as it would be safer for you and also because I understand you have taken the Guardian-Ward vows with Jazz." Phoenix reflected that he definitely didn't sound too happy about the last part. Oops? Ah well, what's done is done and let bygones be bygones as her teacher often said.

"Yes, we did." She replied, and Ratchet started muttering threats at Jazz after having this re-confirmed, but a look from Optimus quickly silenced him with a look and a wave of his hand.

"You will be in the care of William Lennox whilst on base and he has offered to take over legal custody of you so you do not have to return to the care home."

"That's fine with me." She was being adopted then. Sort of. She was being adopted, but only because of a necessity that had arisen. It wasn't like the Lennox's actually wanted her or anything, so she wouldn't kid herself into thinking they did. They definitely wouldn't want her now after she had no arm.

"Jazz will be allowed to have contact with you despite the fact he broke several rules to do so. However, if he breaks any rules again, we shall put you in the custody of another guardian."

"Understood." She said. So they had one more chance which seemed a bit mean considering what had happened. It wasn't Jazz's fault that they had taken her, and it wasn't hers either. Sighing, she just decided to consider herself lucky they hadn't separated them already.

"I will leave you to recover then. If you need anything you may come to me at any time."

"Sure. Thanks." Phoenix knew that she would probably never take him up on that offer considering he terrified the crap out of her, and it didn't help that he was really tall, even for a giant robot. He stood, and bent down to say something to Ratchet who nodded, before leaving the med-bay. Phoenix just stared at his back wondering what he had just said.


	11. What's in a name?

**A/N: I'd just like to thank everyone for reading/favoriting/reviewing this story, I'm so glad you guys are enjoying it and as it's been a super long time since I uploaded, I've uploaded two chapters for you all today that I hope you enjoy with some more Jazz/Phoenix/Prowl bonding and I've thrown Ratchet, Optimus and even Elita in for good measure – Elita will be making a few appearances throughout this story and she plays quite a key role (even though she has to be dead to do it, sorry! **** )**

**I'm also hinting at a sub-plot for one of the characters that will be running alongside the main plot so virtual cookies to whoever guesses which character that is! (It's pretty obvious though lol) Anyway, I hope you enjoy these long awaited and well deserved chapters, and thank you all for reading! **

**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing to do with Transformers, the only thing I own are OC's (mainly Phoenix) **

**The Brig, Jazz's POV**

Jazz was not enjoying his brig time at all, Ironhide of all mechs had been left on guard duty just to make sure he didn't hack the brig door controls and escape again. And Ironhide was not in the best of moods with him.

"You're a fragging idiot, you know." The black mech growled at him.

"Ah know."

"And you chose to go against protocol to endanger a human youngling."

"Ah know tha' as well." Jazz replied and Ironhide stood up and growled.

"Then why the frag did you do it?!" Ironhide roared and Jazz raised one eyebrow at him and shrugged. "You glitching, afthead Scraplet! Answer me youngling!" Jazz sighed and insepected his servo, pretending to be bored before opening his mouthplates to speak.

"Mah spark has this…. Connection ah guess to her." He replied, tapping the metal over his spark chamber.

"After knowing her for less than a day."

"Yeah." Ironhide sighed and when he spoke again, his tone had a lot less venom in.

"I suppose that makes sense. I felt the same with Chromia when we met and then later with Arcee and Bee. It's odd though because she's not exactly compatible with your spark as she's human for Primus' sake."

"Ah thought tha' too, but it's there all the same." Ironhide nodded, before going still, obviously receiving a transmission.

"Ratchet says we can go visit the human."

"Alrigh' then, let's go." Ironhide opened the door to the cell and Jazz made to leave, but Irnohide stopped him with a gentle arm to the shoulder.

"Jazz…"

"Wha'? Wha' ain't yah tellin' me 'Hide?" Ironhide sighed, and his optics filled with age-old sorrow that Jazz had seen many times, but never directed at him before.

"You are aware that humans cannot reattach limbs like we can?"

"Yeah. Point bein'?" He asked causually, but his spark was leaping in its chamber erratically.

"What scalpel did.. the energon has burned away her left arm and it was irreparable. Ratchet had no choice but to remove it and replace it with a metal one. The human has not gone into shock over it, but there is no telling how she will react later." First Jazz felt only sorrow for his human charge, but it was quickly joined by anger at Scalpel.

"When ah get mah hands on tha' crab, ah'll send him straigh' to the unmaker." He told Ironhide who nodded and nudged Jazz towards the door.

"Let's go then." He said, and led Jazz into the medbay where Prowl was sitting talking with Phoenix. She still looked beaten up and bruised, but there was colour back in her cheeks and she was talking enthusiastically to Prowl who also looked a heck of a lot better. The only thing out of place was the metal appendage on his charge.

"Jazz!" Phoenix said joyfully when she saw him and Jazz sat down, offering her is palm which she climbed into and hugged his index finger.

"Hey there li'l lady. Prowler." He said, nodding to his brother who inclined his head in return. It was still weird to be in the same room as Prowl and be unable to feel anything at all form the bond. "How are ya doin' sweetspark?"

"Oh I'm good and look at this!" She said, moving her metal arm. "I'm part metal now, like you and it works just as good as the old one. It's like it was always there, except it feels just a tiny bit weird. Ratchet made it, he's awesome!" Ratchet made a 'hmph' noise from where he was watching, but Jazz could tell he was secretly pleased. It was rare that he got praise for his actions.

"And how are yah Prowler?"

"Prowl please, and I am recovering although work has yet to be done on my spark chamber."

"I'm doing as best as I can, but it's just completely illogical and if I do one thing wrong, it could put him in danger of offlining." Ratchet said, looking down at his scans in frustration. Shockwave had barely left anything untouched.

"Shockwave only does things that are logical though, right?" Phoenix injected, remembering what Jazz had told her about the 'bot.

"Indeed young one. My theory is that he has tried to re-wire Prowl for a purpose of his own design. As that is probably of a flawed and immoral nature I do not know what it would be." Phoenix sighed and leaned back in Jazz's hand against his finger.

"You can figure it out though right?"

"I am doing as best as I can." Ratchet answered honestly, but he did not know if he could. Jazz looked down at Phoenix's metal arm and noticed the Cybertronian symbols in it. Perhaps Ratchet had done it? Although, if Ratchet had then it was a very old language as he did not understand it. He nudged Prowl and gestured to it, but Prowl shrugged, showing that he did not know the meaning either.

"Ratchet, wha' dialect did ya use on Phoenix's arm?"

"What? I have done nothing to Phoenix's arm. I have no idea what you are on about." Phoenix was watching them closely, but offered no opinion on the matter. Ratchet came over to investigate. He looked down, before gasping and dropping the medical tool that he held, backing away and looking at Phoenix as though she was _Megatron _for Primus' sake.

"What? What is it?" Phoenix asked, evidently worried by the mech's reaction. Jazz brought his charge closer his spark as though Ratchet might snatch her away and placed his other hand around her protectively. Prowl regarded Ratchet with an oddly curious expression.

"That's not possible." Ratchet finally said, after regaining his senses.

"Explain." Prowl almost ordered, optics hard.

"It is an ancient language, far older than most here. Even Ironhide, who remembers the Golden Age would not recognise this. Its beginnings can be found dating back to the very dawn of Cybertron itself, before the Seven Original Primes – all the way back to when the first few sparks onlined."

Jazz felt a sense of awe rush over him. He knew Ratchet was the oldest of them all, but he had assumed the mech to be around the same age as Ironhide, perhaps a little older. For Ratchet to know the language, the mech must be from before the Golden Age which was eons and eons before he had even first onlined. Prowl must have also came to the same conclusion, for he looked a little dumbstruck as well, which never happened to Prowl.

"Wha' does it mean?"

"The 'bot said it was a name." Phoenix answered softly and they all turned to her.

"Which 'bot?"

"She said her name was Elita-1, and she also gave me a bracelet." Phoenix held up her left wrist and they could clearly read Elita's designation on it, showing she was under Elita's protection. Jazz and Prowl shared glances, wondering what this could mean. "What does the name mean?" She asked Ratchet, looking up at him. The mech hesitated a second before replying.

"It does not have an accurate translation in neither Cybertronian nor your primitive tongue, but the rough would be ….." He said something to Prowl in Praxian and Prowl thought over it.

"It means something like Raging fire-breather of the North as that is the closest word you have to Predacon."

"So, ah Phoenix then? Raging Phoenix of the North?" Jazz said and both Prowl's and Ratchet's optics dimmed as they searched the creature and Ratchet nodded.

"Yes, a good translation, although that does not encompass the entire name."

"Compared to you guys, we have really basic names don't we?" Phoenix questioned, pleased with the translation of her name glyphs.

"Indeed, each Cybertronian ever sparked has their own separate name glyph with its own unique meaning. When we came to earth, we chose human names that suited the best although they do not quite work. The real name is far more intricate, as is our language." Ratchet explained, obviously in full lecture mode now. Phoenix nodded, realising just how basic and breakable humans were compared to cybertronians. "For example," Ratchet was saying, "Jazz's translation would be 'Soul of Music' or something similar."

"Tha's me! Life an' soul of the party!" Jazz declared, looking pretty pleased with himself, leaving Prowl to raise an optic ridge at him. Phoenix smirked at him as well, whilst Ratchet just groaned and rolled his optics.

"Hey Ratchet, when can I leave this med-bay?"

"Certainly not today! I need to keep an eye on your injuries which means _no sneaking her out Jazz_." Ratchet said, pronouncing each word with emphasis. It was Jazz's turn to roll his optics now.

"Sure thing Hatchet." Ratchet sighed and aimed a wrench at his shoulder plating.

"Ow man!"

"Nicknames."

"Frag you….Ow!"

"Language." Ratchet reprimanded and Jazz glared at him, mumbling something under his breath about 'slagging medic and his slagging wrenches.' Phoenix giggled at him and he grinned back, Prowl watching on. "Ironhide's back, so you can get out of my med-bay." Ratchet said, pointing at Jazz who started to whine.

"But Ra-atch, I ain't even been here tha' long man!"

"No buts, and I don't care. I need to work on Prowl and Phoenix needs to rest. Out, now." Still whining and moaning, Jazz handed Phoenix to Prowl and Ratchet practically kicked him out the med-bay, throwing a wrench after him that hit its target with a resounding 'THWACK!' Ratchet chuckled quietly to himself and went back to his work.

"Is he evil or what?" Phoenix muttered. Prowl looked down at his brother's charge and a hint of a smile appeared at the corners of his mouthplates.

"One can never be too sure about Ratchet when he is in a mood youngling, and you would be wise to remember that."


	12. Ironhide's surprise

**A/N Hey everyone, I'd just like to thank everyone who followed/favourited/reviewed this story, especially Bee4ever, Khalthar and CastielLunaWinchester for their reviews. I'm sorry I kept you up last night XD but here is the update you were waiting for! This chapter has some pranking and some Prowl, Ratchet and Phoenix conversation and also some Optimus. **

**No Jazz in this chapter, but they'll be more of him and Prowl in the next chapter as I'm dedicating that to their brother bond and what shockwave was trying to do. We'll also have some learning about bonds for Phoenix too, but for now here is Chapter 12! Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy! **

By her second day in the med-bay, Phoenix is already bored out of her wits. Ratchet doesn't like to talk when he works and he won't let her or Prowl do anything considered extraneous, which apparently involves basic conversation. There's nothing to do except stare at the ceiling and she checks the clock on the wall opposite. 1:36 in the afternoon.

She'd sell her soul for her ipod right now.

Sighing, she inspects the symbols on her arm for what must bed the thousandth time and traces her fingers over the metal.

"Can I get up yet?" She questions the medic.

"No."

"I've been here for hours."

"No means no."

"Afthead." She grumbled at him, but he ignored her. Then, she had an idea. What if she could sneak out of the med-bay and explore this base properly? She would only have to wait for Ratchet to go into his back office and she could make a getaway out the human sized door at ground level. Prowl was deep in recharge too, so there was no danger of her getting caught.

Grinning, she waited until the medic had gone to retrieve something and she jumped up, unhooking herself from the various machines she was attached too and bolting for the human sized stairs at the end of the berth. She rushed down them and out the door, casting one last triumphant glance behind her. Med-bay successfully escaped!

Then, a golden coloured Autobot came down the corridor.

"What are you doing out human?" He asked when he saw her.

"She obviously escaped the Hatchet Sunny." The silver coloured one said coming up behind him, and she recognised them as Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, the mechs she had met last week. Sideswipe was grinning from ear to ear. "We were gonna bust you out 'cause we thought you'd be bored in there, but seeing as you're already out, how about helping us with a prank?"

She didn't even need to think about it.

"Sure thing! What is it?" She asked excitedly. Sideswipe offered her his hand and she climbed onto it.

"Well you see, the idea is…."

**Time Skip, Ironhide's POV**

Ironhide was deep in recharge, enjoying a peaceful rest for once in his life when a high pitched scream interrupted his rest.

"Help!" Came the voice from outside in the corridor. He groaned and turned over, trying to get some much needed recharge.

"Help me it's Megatron!" Megatron?! The base was under attack. Ironhide leapt out of bed, and out into the corridor where the nearby decepticons started firing on him, bangs echoeing off the walls of the corridor. Enraged he tried to look for his attackers, but couldn't see them anywhere. They must be invisible.

"Decepticon scum!" He yelled and started firing blindly, hoping to hit the attacker and force the decepticon to reveal himself, but to his surprise a horrific mix of sparkly pink, cream, wrapping paper, confetti and glue of all things came from his cannons and he spluttered. What on earth had the twins done?! It seemed as though they had taken confetti canons to the next level and stuffed whatever they could find into his cannons which.

He was going to offline those fraggers slowly and painfully after he dealt with these intruders.

With a roar promising death to his opponents, he rushed towards the rec room, ignoring the decepticons that were firing at him.

Phoenix's POV

As predicted, the bubble wrap had worked beautifully causing Ironhide to think he was under attack from the decepticons and fire blindly, unleashing the mess of primus-knows-what the twins had stuffed in there. What she was particularly interested in was where they had found this much bubble wrap, considering they had lined the entirety of the corridor in the stuff.

The way the mech leapt about was absolutely hilarious, jumping and roaring at his 'inivisible' opponent which was none other than harmless bubble wrap. She looked to Sideswipe who was trying not to fall over from laughing, like Sunstreaker who was currently on the floor with tears running down his faceplates.

"That was fragging priceless!" Sideswipe finally choked out.

"Did you see the way he was jumping about? He looked like he was stepping on lava." Phoenix joined in which sent them all into fits of giggles again.

"He's gonna offline us for the cannons, but that was so worth it!" Sunstreaker managed finally and high fived Sideswipe.

"Hilarious even, one might say if they were not in danger of being offlined." Said a casual voice that promised death from behind them. The three pranksters froze, and Phoenix looked first to see a Ratchet behind them, arms crossed and tapping a wrench against his arm. He pointed the wrench down at Phoenix. "You are to return to the med-bay this instant. As for you two slaggers…." Here he made a violent motion with the wrench.

Sideswipe took one look at Sunstreaker, and something passed between them because the next second she was in the interior of Sideswipe's alt mode, racing down the corridor behind Sunstreaker. She laughed and whooped as they went over the bubble wrap, leaving Ratchet in the dust as they turned the corner….

Straight into an infuriated mech with bright pink cannons.

Sunstreaker hit the breaks, but was going at too high of a speed to stop and barrelled straight into Ironhide, who no doubt having discovered the pranksters, picked up the golden bot by the bonnet and shook him. Sunstreaker transformed but only ended up dangling above ground by his audio-receptor.

Sideswipe hit the breaks in time, but could not reverse as Ratchet had now caught up.

"Aw slag." Phoenix groaned as Sideswipe transformed and offered her to Ratchet who practically snatched her. Seconds later Sideswipe was also in the grip of Ironhide as the mech carried them off down the corridor. Ratchet aimed the wrench at Sideswipe's aft plating as the twins were carried off.

"And let that teach you not to take patients out of my med-bay!" He roared before stalking back off to the med-bay.

Phoenix sighed. At least her escapade was fun whilst it lasted, although she might get murdered by Hatchet in a minute. When they reached the med-bay however, Optimus Prime was in there again so she would live for another 10 minutes at least.

"I see you have recovered Phoenix." He stated as Ratchet practically dumped her on the berth. Prowl was sitting up and watching the proceedings with interest.

"Stupid, fragging, glitching, aft head, Unicron spawns straight from the pit itself!" Ratchet replied by way of greeting, still obviously fuming about the twins. He aimed a wrench threateningly at Prowl. "See to it that they end up on washrack cleaning duty for the next month or I'll offline you as well." Prowl, unfazed by the threat and rather amused at the angry medic, nodded.

"Done." He commented dryly but Ratchet paid no notice and went back into his office, still muttering threats for the twins. Optimus sat down on the berth Phoenix was on and offered her his hand to which she climbed into. He raised her to optic level.

"Ratchet has told me that you claim to have met an Autobot in a dream. One who gave you the name on your arm and also a bracelet with her designation. One who claims her name in life was Elita-1?"

"Yeah, would you like to see it?" She says, offering her human arm with the bracelet on for inspection and he focuses on it before smiling somewhat sadly.

"So you were visited by elita. I suspected as much." He says, and when he speaks this time it is much quieter, almost reverent.

"Did you know her?"

"Yes, she was the leader of the Femme division for the Autobot army."

"She was a good, kind and wise leader who always offered help to any who needed it. She was pure of spark and is missed by all in the Autobot army." Prowl offers quietly from across the room, and Optimus smiles at his SIC.

"Thank you Prowl for those words. Elita-1 was also my spark-mate and it grieved me deeply when she was offlined during the war. It comforts my spark to know that she is safe and happy in the well of sparks." Phoenix is surprised to hear that Elita was Optimus' sparkmate. He must be missing her an awful lot, and is probably shocked to find her wearing something with her personal designation on. She places her small hand on his finger in a gesture of comfort.

"She seemed like a wonderful 'bot." _Even if she was a little prone to speaking in riddles, _Phoenix thinks.

"Indeed she was." Optimus says and Prowl nods, agreeing. Optimus smiles once more, but it doesn't quite reach his optics and she feels that perhaps she might go to him if she needs anything after all because he isn't that scary for such a tall 'bot. "I must go and see what has become of Ironhide and the twins. I trust Prowl can keep an eye on you for the time being." He teases lightly, placing Phoenix back down.

"Of course Commander Optimus." Prowl replies, returning the teasing with a mock salute and Optimus raises and eyebrow but refuses to comment. As he leaves the med-bay, the Hatchet walks in, still looking like he wants to destroy something.

Or someone.

Namely her.

She implores Prowl with her eyes to protect her if the medic attempts to commit murder, hoping that he will and if not for her sake, then for Jazz's. She wishes her guardian could spirit her away from the wrath of the medic right now.

"So. Ironhide and the twins." He begins and she shrugs.

"I got bored. I've been sat here all day yesterday and all day today. I'm a kid. What did you expect?" Ratchet opens his mouth, and she waits for the reprimand but none comes forth.

"Exactly what happened to happen I suppose. If I was to get you something to amuse yourself with, would you promise to stay put?" He offers, and she watches him suspiciously. This is a rather different Ratchet from the one she was expecting.

"Yes. Even if you just talked to me a bit I wouldn't have wandered off. It wouldn't have to be anything important, it's just a distraction."

"From your arm?" She shifts around a bit before relenting.

"Yes. If Jazz was here it would be better."

"Jazz will be released from the brig tomorrow and no doubt he will spend all day in my med-bay fussing over you and Prowl like a femme creator." Ratchet replies curtly. "Nonetheless, I will see what I can find. Perhaps Mikaela or Captain Lennox will know. Until then, Prowl and I will make conversation, until Prowl needs to rest."

"Of course doctor." Prowl humours him. "Now isn't this lovely weather we are having?" He says sarcastically and Phoenix giggles at him. For a 'bot with a reputation as a tight-aft, he's actually pretty funny. Maybe it's something to do with the stuff Ratchet has been giving him.

"I take it you guys don't really make small talk, so I'll start. My name is Phoenix and I was born somewhere in New York, but I've been shifted around the states in different care homes for most of my life. I like music, especially Skillet and I really hate school and most of the kids at the home and I especially hate care home workers." She offers and Prowl thinks it over.

"Hello Phoenix, my name is Prowl and I was born and raised in the city of Praxus. I was an enforcer before the war, and I am the SIC and Head of Tacticians for the Autobot army. I have one brother Jazz, whom I like very much. I dislike pranks, and I especially dislike the twins." He finishes and Phoenix smiles encouragingly at him.

"You got it! And you Ratchet?"

"My name is Ratchet and I was born and raised in one of the Sea of Rust tribes. I was in the Kaon Pits as an unofficial medic and travelled around the mines of Cybertron before joining the Autobots and become the Chief Medic. I like it when people show up for their check-ups, and I dislike 'bots who maliciously harm others, especially 'bots like Shockwave." Ratchet finishes.

"I was unware that you worked in the pits of Kaon. Is that how you found the twins?"

"I didn't say I worked in the pits Prowl, I said I was in the pits and it's not something I usually share. As for the other question, no. I found the twins as younglings after the destruction of the pits as I was one of the only medics in the nearby vicinity." Ratchet replies, and Phoenix carefully watches Prowl's expression which doesn't change, although his optics do narrow slightly at the first part.

"Excuse me for sounding dumb, but what's a pit?"

"A pit is a… gladiator arena in affect with beast fights too. Slavery and crime are rampant, conditions appalling and the bloodshed sickening." Ratchet sums up and Phoenix shivers. Definitely not a place she would like to visit at all.

"Was it… for sport?"

"Yes. Most that were not destroyed along with the Pits became decepticons due to their bloodthirsty and aggressive nature."

"Oh."

The room falls into an awkward silence and Phoenix wonders how it went from small talk to highly unpleasant things to say the least. It is Prowl who restarts the conversation eventually.

"I like music, especially old Praxian songs." He offers somewhat shyly.

"Those were nice weren't they? Most Cybertronian songs were, the only ones I couldn't stand were the ones from Kaon and the heavy metal from Polyhex." Ratchet says next and Prowl snorts.

"You mean everything Jazz plays?"

"Basically." They share a slight laugh at her guardian's expense but the dark mood has been lightened again. Ratchet turns back to his work again, but he brings in his reports and continues the conversation with Prowl. Phoenix lies down, and begins to drift off, falling asleep to the murmur of their voices in the background.


	13. re-bonding

**Med-bay, Phoenix's POV**

True to what Ratchet says, Jazz is in the med-bay the next day the second he is released. Literally, the split second as Ratchet found out when he scanned Jazz's fuel levels.

"You didn't even think to refuel?" The medic demands, wrench in hand.

"Nah Ratch' man, ah had to get here as soon as ah could." Jazz says, grinning cheekily. The medic groans and retrieves some energon from his supplies and shoves it in Jazz's direction, but not before smacking him promptly with a wrench. "Slaghead." The medic grumbles and goes back to examining Prowl's spark chamber.

"So how are ya doin' Phoenix in here wit' these borin' 'bots?" Jazz asks, and Ratchet rolls his optics, sighing noisily. Prowl says nothing, but he is lying on a berth with his spark chamber being poked at so Phoenix isn't really surprised about that.

"Oh, they are okay actually. I played a prank on Ironhide yesterday with the twins though."

"Ah heard abou' tha'. Mech was slagged off as all'a pit when he came to guard meh later. Tellin' meh how ya covered the hall in bubble wrap an' stuffed 'a loada slag' as he called it, in his cannons. Nice work, ya are leanin' well."

"Don't encourage her Jazz." Prowl reprimands and Ratchet nods violently.

"I second that. Those twins are enough as it is. Primus help us if Mudflap and Skids show up."

"Please do not mention the minor twins. The orn they teamed up and declared war on the base was the worst orn in my entire life." Prowl says drily and Jazz agrees.

"I agree wit' ya there, an' ah hope tha' nevah happens again." Ratchet pokes around in Prowl's chamber for a few more minutes. "Feelin' comfy Prowler?"

"My designation is Prowl and no, I am not as you well know." Prowl retorts, sarcasm lacing his tone and Phoenix giggles at them. The way they interact is highly amusing.

"Aha!" Ratchet suddenly declares and stands up straight. "I think I've got it, hold on a second I need to comm' Arcee."

"Arcee? Wha's Arcee got to do wit' this?" Jazz questions, baffled. Prowl appears confused now as well and goes to shut his spark chamber.

"What are you doing?" Ratchet questions.

"Shutting my chamber. I am not flashing Arcee of all 'bots. It is inappropriate." Prowl replies curtly and Ratchet shoves him back down on the berth.

"I don't give a flying frag if Arcee is a femme, a decepticon or Megatron himself. You'll do as I slagging well say here and if you don't, I can pull rank. Now lie down and open it again." Ratchet demands and Prowl reluctantly does so. Seconds later, a blue and pink femme around the same height as Jazz waltzes in and shrieks.

"Ratchet you could have warned me you were looking at his spark!"

"Silence! Now sit down on that berth and open your spark chamber for a second."

"What? No! Not with Jazz and Prowl about!"

"Now, or else." He says and Arcee, thoroughly annoyed, does as she is told.

"Either or you mechs look, and I'll offline you." She threatens and both Prowl and Jazz have the good graces to face a different direction. Jazz facing the opposite wall and Prowl the ceiling. Ratchet inspects Arcee's spark chamber before going back to Prowl, then back to Arcee.

"Got it, both of you can close your chambers now." They do so, with evident relief and a still-annoyed Arcee stands up.

"What was the point in that?"

"I know what Shockwave was doing."

"You do? What was it?" Phoenix asks and Arcee seems to properly notice her for the first time.

"What is a human youngling doing with Jazz?"

"Go ask Prime, I don't have time to explain the ins and out of Jazz's troublemaking. As for the first question, it looks like Shockwave has attempted to rewire Prowl's chamber to look and act like that of a femme's." Ratchet replies, and everyone stares at him in disbelief, especially Prowl and Jazz.

"So… Prowler's ah femme?"

"No, I said attempted." Ratchet emphasizes, rolling his eyes. "The differences between a mech and a femme's sparkchamber is too different although it looks like he really did try. However, it means I should be able to fix most of it as I know roughly what I have to do now." Arcee leans on the doorframe to the med-bay, interest on her face plates.

"For what purpose?"

"I'd assume that it is to do with the lack of femmes in our race. With the allspark destroyed, our race is relying on what few femmes there are and currently there are none in the decepticon army and we only have you Arcee, and Chromia somewhere. It is logical that Shockwave would try this." Arcee nods, but looks displeased at the idea she has to be the 'Mother' of the Cybertronian race. "It is reversible though Prowl, and I can begin it as soon as you are ready."

"So ah can bond wit' him again?"

"I would say yes, but I'll oversee the process incase Shockwave has hidden anything particularly nasty in there. I can never be certain when Shockwave is involved." Ratchet finishes darkly.

"When can I have the surgery?"

"As soon as you like. Now I know what I'm doing, it will be easy to fix. I could even do it now if you wanted." Ratchet offers and Prowl and Jazz share a look.

"Now would be excellent."

"I suspected as much, so I'll need the rest of you out!" Ratchet orders and shooes them away. Jazz squeezes Prowl on the shoulder as he passes, Phoenix in his hand and Arcee in front of them, striding away as fast as she can from the medic.

**1 hour later, Rec room, Jazz's POV**

He has taken his charge to the rec room whilst they wait for Prowl. Jazz is pleased to see that she looks much better than she did when he was put in the brig. Whatever human drugs Ratchet has given her seems to be working quite well, and she seems to be adjusting to the arm pretty well.

What he doesn't know is how well she is faring mentally. She's currently looking through the Wii games for the console hooked up to the 'bot sized monitor, obviously looking for something. Then, she holds up something triumphantly.

"Got it!"

"Got wha'?" Jazz asks, offering her his hand and bringing her up to the arm of the 'bot sized couch.

"Mario Kart. I played it once at one of my foster homes and I was pretty good. Do you have 'bot sized controllers around here by any chance?" She asks, and in reply Jazz retrieves one of the Wheeljack-made remotes that are definitely a much loved invention. Sometimes during the middle of the race, Jazz asks her the question.

"So how are ya doin' metally? Ah mean, do ya miss ya home or anythin'? School?"

"I could never miss school in a million years Jazz. As for the care home, it wasn't ever my home to be honest and I'd never call it my home and I don't really miss anyone there."

"No friends or anythin'?"

"Nah." She shrugs off and Jazz frowns at her.

"Did ya never talk to anyone or somethin'?" She sends a red shell into his cart, overtaking him in the game and she whoops whilst he groans in annoyance as he falls back three places.

"I mean… not really no. I'm a bit of a weird kid if you couldn't tell and people like to kick my ass, although I do generally kick their asses back, which gets me in a load of slag." She says absentmindedly and Jazz wonders if she realises just how quickly she is picking up their language.

"So this ass kickin', wha' did they do?" He questions curiously.

"Oh the usual slag. Punching, kicking, slapping – I've even been bitten once but this girl in the year above who fought really dirty. I twisted her nipples for that one. Little fraghead deserved it and I got detention, we both did but it was worth it. Most serious I had was when some of the boys from the home threatened me with a knife."

"Wha' for?"

"Um… google rape maybe?" He does and is expression goes dark. "They were the really nasty idiots though, the ones that nobody liked and are going to fail later on in life. They didn't get me because I kneed the one with the knife in the nuts and gave someone else a black eye, and broke the other one's nose."

"Good. If they did tha' now ah'd offline 'em." He mutters, still annoyed that anyone would dare attack _his _charge. The game ends as Phoenix passes the finishing line in first place with Jazz coming in second.

"Get wrecked Jazz!" She cheers, jumping up and pointing at him. He gives her the finger and she laughs.

"No respect for the guardian?" He says and she shakes her head, still grinning.

"Nah, I don't generally respect slag piles." She jokes and he activates his holoform behind her and jabs her in the sides, which has the desired effect of causing her to double over, laughing as he tickles her. The internet is pretty useful for finding where most humans have their tickle spots.

"If ya won't respect ya guardian, ah won't stop." He warns and it continues some more, before she relents.

"Alright, alright I give!" She chuckles and he stops. "I beg your forgiveness oh wise and wonderful guardian." She says sarcastically.

"Tha's more like it, oh amazin' charge of mine." He returns and she shoots him the finger. Then, he gets a comm from Ratchet, who is apparently done with Prowl already.

"Hatchet's done, let's go an' see Prowler."

He picks her up and places her on his shoulder where she dangles her legs above the ground and swings them back and forth, banging against the plating every so often. When they reach the med-bay, Prowl is up and looking relieved whilst Ratchet just looks pleased with himself.

"All done. Now, like I said you two can rebond whilst I monitor you from the office. Nothing should go wrong because I can't find anything that should cause a problem, but I want to monitor you just in case."

"Awesome!" Jazz states happily, ready to have their bond back and Prowl graces him with a rare smile. "Ready to see inside mah head Prowler?"

"Naturally, although it seems I shall have to adjust to the mess that is your processor once more." Prowl shoots back good-naturedly and Ratchet attaches a device to each of them.

"That will allow me to measure what is happening in your bodies from my office monitors. Now, would you like to come with me and wait?" Ratchet offers his charge and she nods, accepting the offer. Ratchet carries her off with him.

**Phoenix's POV**

Ratchet is explaining what each of the monitor's do and she's trying to pay attention but there are just so many for her to remember. Heart rate, temperature, energon flow, fuel lines etc. She gives up on trying to remember them all and stares at the heart rate monitor which is identical to their's practically, except it's much bigger.

They must begin, and through the office window there is some kind of bright blue dazzling light and she shields her eyes. If won't hurt her, because then Ratchet wouldn't let her stay and to her surprise he offers her something.

"Sunglasses. Sometimes, my apprentice Mikaela uses them. You'll have to meet her at some point, she helped with your arm and she's an excellent apprentice." He says proudly, and Phoenix files away that information for later, putting on the glasses and watching the monitors.

All is going well and Ratchet looks pleased.

Until the monitor on the far left makes some kind of noise.

"Is that bad?"

"Spark pressure is increasing, but that's normal. Thing is, it's getting a bit high." He murmurs worriedly and looks back. The bright blue light is increasing and Ratchet dims his optics. Now she can't see Prowl or Jazz for all the light and another monitor goes. Then another. Then another. All the ones on the left go erratic, and she doesn't know if they are hooked to Prowl or Jazz.

Then both of them cry out in pain and shock and an explosion shakes the med-bay, shattering the office window and leaving her ears ringing.

She stumbles, aware of glass in her flesh arm and Ratchet rushing into the med-bay.

Half-blinded by the light, she stumbles down the stairs and out the door. Both are stumbling, energon leaking everywhere and it's evident something has gone horribly, horribly wrong. Ratchet must be shouting at her, or maybe he's just cursing Shockwave, but she can't tell because her ears are still ringing, ringing, ringing.

There's energy crackling too from both spark chambers and a bolt from one of them leaps out and strikes her, shockwaves travelling through her body like a weird kind of electrocution. Then, from far, far away, the beep of the monitors returns, the pulse ones and her hearing returns.

Just as one of them flatlines with a high-pitched shriek and she doesn't know who it is.

Until Prowl collapses to the ground, lifeless.

**A/N Yeah, I'm evil, leaving it on a cliffie like that but I'll be updating really soon so you won't be in suspense for long hopefully! Don't kill me please xDD **

**Thank you to my reviewers and anyone who has favourited/followed this story! I hope you liked this chapter and thank you all for reading!**

**-AnAshBlackSword**


	14. How to squash a bug

**A/N: Yeah, I'm seriously evil for leaving the last chapter like I did, but here is the next one to make up for it. As always, thank you for reading/favouriting/following this story and special thank you's to my reviewers, you guys really make me smile! **** This chapter is the aftermath of the last, with a twist somewhere in the middle. I hope you enjoy and please review! **

**-AnAshBlackSword**

**Phoenix's POV**

The med-bay is in absolute chaos, blackened shells of healing instruments strewn everywhere from the aftermath of the explosion. She's regained some of her hearing and she's aware of someone screaming as Ratchet attempts to shock Prowl's spark back online.

Somewhere the thought registers that it's her.

Ratchet shocks Prowl for the second time, and she and Jazz watch and wait. She can hear the other bot's pounding on the door and she's certain that's Ironhide's voice even though it sounds much quieter than she should be.

The door bursts open as Ratchet shocks Prowl and the monitor starts up again. Phoenix inhales deeply, unaware that she had been holding her breath. Ironhide, Prime, the twins and Arcee rush in and it's Ironhide that removes her from the floor and places her on the nearby berth. Wheeljack finally rushes in and both he and the twins help Jazz down, Wheeljack beginning to hook him up to the various monitors whist Ratchet and Prime lift Prowl onto another.

"Wheeljack, twins, take Jazz and get him stable. Prime, get Bumblebee and Mikaela, I need her hands and his servos for this. Ironhide, get what I tell you to get, there are spare tools in the office. Arcee, make sure nothing is wrong with Phoenix." Ratchet says quietly, but with a tone of steel. Arcee scans her and she feels the odd tingle that happens when she gets scanned.

"I don't know that much about humans Ratchet." She says after a pause.

"Keep her talking then and get Lennox."

"I guess we didn't really meet properly earlier did we? I'm Arcee." Distracted, she looks away from the mangled body of Jazz and the seemingly lifeless one as well.

"Phoenix."

"What kind of stuff do you like?" Arcee prompts again, but all Phoenix can think of is Jazz.

"Will they be okay? Ratchet can fix them right? They won't offline again will they?" She questions rapidly and Arcee blinks in surprise.

"Ratchet I think she's in shock." She wants to tell Arcee that's nuts, she's not in shock she's just worried about Jazz and Prowl but she can't seem to get the words out and so she remains silent.

"Oh for the love of Primus!" Ratchet snaps as he grits his denta and tries to fix a wire whilst watching her and Jazz at the same time.

"Swap with me Arcee, I'll deal with this." Ironhide growls and she's vaguely aware of being passed from Arcee small hand into Ironhide's massive one. Ironhide twists her so that she's looking at him instead of Prowl and Jazz.

"Does it hurt sparklet?" He asks softly, in a much gentler tone than she's ever heard him use. He gestures to her human arm which has lots of glass sticking out of it and blood pouring out. She registers that yes, it really hurts.

"Mmm-hmm, but not as much as Prowl 'n Jazz will." She mumbles out and he nods.

"Don't worry about them, Ratchet is the best medic we ever had on Cybertron. He can fix them. Right now we need to worry about you. From a scale of 1 – 10, how much does it hurt?"

"Umm.. 6? My ears hurt more though and I can't hear anything properly."

"My scans indicate you have minor hearing damage but nothing that cannot be fixed." Well, that's a relief at least. She twists her head around to see Jazz, but Ironhide catches her face with his fingers and tilts it back to him. "Eyes on me smallspark." He says, removing his finger and tapping his faceplate. "Are you scared?" He asks, and she considers the question. She wasn't scared in fights at school, and she wasn't scared when she saw Elita, and she wasn't even scared when she woke up with a metal arm.

She was afraid when she was taken by the 'cons though, and maybe she's scared now, for her guardian and his brother.

"A little." She gets out. "Are you?"

"Perhaps, but it is okay to be afraid sometimes." He replies. She turns her head as the man she recognises as Lennox arrives with some men and a tall girl with long black hair that must be Mikaela steps out of Bumblebee as he transforms.

"Ratchet what happened?" She asks and he lifts her up beside Prowl.

"No time for questions, just start repairing these lines. Bumblebee, I need you to apply pressure on these wires."

"But… she's a child and she's bleeding!" Mikaela gestures frantically at her.

"Mikaela, what do we always do first in the med-bay?" Mikaela looks between Phoenix and Prowl, torn between her own race and her mentor's instruction. Finally, she decides and turns back to Ratchet.

"Always stabilise the most critical patients first." She replies quietly and goes over to Prowl chassis as Ratchet begins to tell her which wires to fix first. Lennox runs up the stairs and along the berth with a first aid kit. Ironhide places her down and activates his holoform.

"I shall assist you, Will."

"Appreciated 'Hide." He replies, and she is told to lie down as Lennox injects a painkiller into her skin. She winces slightly as the long needle goes in and then he gets another. "We need to sedate you for this."

"No wait! But Jazz… and Prowl…." She protests and attempts to struggle away, but Lennox gets her with another needle full of a very strong sedative, and she doesn't even get to finish her sentence before slipping under.

**Ironhide's POV**

He can tell that his human partner is deeply concerned for the youngling's wellbeing which is probably something to do with the fact that he is a Father himself.

"We need to get the glass out of these wounds." Will says, handing him a pair of tweezers and he begins to carefully remove the glass from her arm, scanning to make sure he gets all of it. He and Will work quickly and efficiently, as do Ratchet, Wheeljack and their respective teams.

The cuts are jagged and nasty, but soon they have all of the shards out and they move on towards cleaning the wounds with antiseptic to kill any bacteria to prevent infection. Finally, Will bandages up her arm. He requests a blanker from one of his men, who brings forward a thermal blanket and he wraps Phoenix in it to keep her warm and more comfortable.

When they are done, Ratchet requests that the rest of the men leave so the med-bay is less crowded, but Will stays, sitting with his knees up by his chin and Ironhide can tell that something is bothering his human partner. He waits, and it pays off because Will begins to speak in undertones so as not to disturb Ratchet.

"I'm supposed to be taking this one home to meet Sarah and Annie sometime next week."

"Really? Since when?"

"A couple of days ago. I was in the meeting when the government wanted her in their custody to see what the decepticons had done to her, and when Optimus persuaded them into letting her stay on base, she needed a legal guardian."

"You volunteered."

"Yes, she doesn't seem like a bad kid and it would be nice for Annie to have an older sister. I haven't had a chance to even speak to her yet about meeting Sarah and Annie, or even meet her properly and this happens." He finishes with a regretful sigh.

"She will recover and you can talk to her."

"I guess." He says, but Ironhide knows Will is in Father mode and not Soldier mode now which means he will probably brood about this for a long time. He nudges the man will his holoform.

"Don't brood." He tells him and Will snaps himself out of it and watches as Ratchet and Wheeljack work on Jazz and Prowl. They sit together in silence until first Jazz, then Prowl are stabilised. Ratchet stands and comes over to Phoenix, scanning her to make sure she is stable too, before looking around his wrecked med-bay.

"Slag." He says simply as he looks around the damage. "Something tells me the budget won't cover this one."

"I'll make them handle it." Will says darkly, and Ironhide knows how his partner can wrestle funds off of anyone if need be. He isn't a Captain for nothing. Ratchet places Mikaela beside Phoenix so Mikaela can satisfy herself that Phoenix is fine. Eventually, she takes a seat beside Will and Ironhide helps Ratchet to tidy up what he can of the med-bay, picking up and removing ruined tools. The walls are damaged, and he'll need new windows but the damage should be repairable, if a little expensive.

"What do you think happened Ratchet?"

"Shockwave did something to the back-up routers connected to the spark. When they bonded, the extra energy should have dissipated throughout Prowl's frame harmlessly, but somehow Shockwave re-wired it to look normal, but send the energy back into Prowl's spark instead of dissipating. It built up and up, and exploded, sending shockwaves through Jazz and himself. I do not know if the bond will still be successful."

"What was the point in that though?"

"My guess is that the point was to kill Prowl and Jazz as he knew they would try to rebond. It's a dirty trick to say the least." Ratchet explained, grumbling the last part and proceeding to mutter about how much he hated Shockwave. The other 'bots helped Ratchet as he tidied, until Ironhide received an emergency transmission from Epps.

"There's decepticons outside the base!" Was the panicked message and Ironhide relayed it to every bot within a matter of seconds. The main priority was to protect the med-bay at all costs and prevent the decepticons from getting there, or anywhere in the base. All the Autobots, Lennox and Mikaela headed out of the med-bay, leaving it unguarded as Ratchet would be needed in battle in case of anymore casualties.

**Phoenix's POV**

When she awoke, the med-bay was completely empty. The other 'bots were nowhere in site and there was some kind of alarm going off in the base.

"Ratchet? Are you there?" She called out, but there was no reply. Going down to the floor level, she looked around the med-bay for anyone, but everyone was gone. The black soot on the walls, floor and berths showed she hadn't imagined the explosion.

Nervously, she retrieved a smaller instrument from the floor that was used for smaller 'bots like Bee. It was about the size of a crowbar, and slightly longer. Creeping up to her guardian, she could have sworn she heard scalpel the spider laughing quietly, but she couldn't see him and so she figured it was a side-effect of the painkillers or the sedatives.

She placed her hand on her guardian's cheek and confirmed he was alive because the metal was warm to touch. Sighing with relief, she looked over his body before there was another cackle, this time slightly louder.

Maybe she wasn't hearing things after all.

"So, ze Autobots, zey have attempted to fix zheir friend? Shockwave vill be displeased, but no matter. Ve vill fix ze experiment vonce he has been taken but to ze warship." She stiffened and looked over to Prowl's berth, where she spotted a silver spider crawling about. It appeared Scalpel was here after all.

Judging the distance, she guessed she could probably jump it and she did, using the tuck and roll to break her landing. Soundlessly, she crept up on scalpel who was too busy gloating over Prowl to notice her. Then, with a wild war cry, she attempted to bring the crowbar-like object down on his head and smash the spider to pieces.

He moved out of the way just in time.

"I zee you have survived. No matter. Ve vill take you back to ze ship alzo."

"Like pit you will!" She cried and swung it violently towards him, sending him spinning off Prowl's chassis and onto the berth about 5 metres away. He clicked several times before rushing her, and she tried to smash the little bot with the bar, but he was too fragging fast and she kept missing, eventually getting disarmed and knocked over by the 'bot. He was heavier than he looked for sure.

"And now, ve vill examine ze specimen yes?" He said, and she struggled as he activated his blades and brought them down to her other arm. As a last resort, she screamed and screamed. Scalpel just laughed. "Zat vill get you novhere, human."

But just as he brought the blade down to her arm, he was ripped from her and thrown against the far wall, where he collided loudly and dropped to the floor, seemingly lifeless before jumping up scuttling off, but leaving a couple of limbs behind. She looked to see the very welcome face of Jazz's holoform, brandishing the dropped bar and looking like he'd just won the lottery.

"An' tha' mah friends, is how ya take out the trash."


	15. The Allspark Shard

**A/n: Hey everyone, I hope you all enjoyed the last chapter and finding out that I didn't kill off Prowler (I'm not that mean xD), and don't worry about Scalpel - he's not dead yet but I can promise you he'll come to the very nasty end he deserves at some point during this story. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who hates that little spider XD**

**Anyway, in this chapter we have some decepticons and I've written a short battle scene for that. There's also some Prime and Jazz/Phoenix bonding as well as some Ratchet in there. I hope you enjoy this chapter, thank you to anyone who has favourited/followed/reviewed this story so far and special thanks and lots of cookies to my regular reviewers CastielLunaWinchester and Bee4ever, you guys are awesome! If you like this story, please review, and thank you all for reading!**

**-AnAshBlackSword**

**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing to do with transformers. **

**Jazz's POV**

His charge jumps up and throws her arms around his holoform's neck.

"Jazz! You're okay!" She says delightedly and he laughs.

"Of course ah am, it'll take more than tha' to offline meh." He pauses for a second, feeling something that he hasn't felt for vorns. "Guess wha'?" He tells her as she pulls away.

"What?"

"Ah can feel Prowler, the bondin' worked! It works!" She looks surprised, then elated and fist pumps the air. He laughs with her, before another explosion rocks the base and he switches off his holoform and gets up in his true form.

"Where are you going?!"

"The base is under attack, an' Optimus the 'bots'll need help."

"I'm coming too then!" She announces and he looks her over. Her arm is still bandaged, her ear still a little damaged and she's still recovering from what Scalpel did to her. Shame he didn't the little bugger, but he'll make sure to do that sometime soon. That aside, there is no way she is coming with him.

"Like pit ya are. Ya are gonna stay here, understand?" He tells her and she grumbles, annoyed at him. "Someone needs ta watch Prowler." He says again, and sighing noisily, she relents.

"Fine." She agrees reluctantly and takes a seat beside Prowl. He activates his arm blades, only pausing at the door to point one at her.

"Stay." He says and she inclines her head. Sprinting off, he runs out of the base and straight into a warzone. From what he can tell, the majority of the decepticon troops are here and all of the Autobots bar Prowl. Even Ratchet is engaging the enemy, something the medic rarely does. He's struggling, and so Jazz slices the decepticon through the spark from behind.

"Jazz? What in Primus' name are you doing?! You need to get back in the base this astrosecond!" Ratchet shouts angrily when he sees who helped him.

"Ah'm functional."

"Barely."

"Ya need all the help ya can get." Ratchet looks from Jazz to the battle and back to Jazz again.

"Fine, but I will offline you later." He growls and they leap back into the fray, Jazz slicing with his blades and Ratchet with his saws. Jazz has got to admit that the medic makes a good back-up, and a formidable opponent with those sawblades.

And the wrenches, he reflects wryly as one goes flying with deadly accuracy and hits the 'con fighting Bumblebee in the head. The scout takes advantage of his distracted opponent, stabbing him straight through the spark and then beeps a 'thank you', tossing the wrench back to Ratchet who catches it.

At the front, he can see Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, the frontliners offlining every opponent stupid or brave enough to get in the way of the pair. The pranksters are two of the best fighters the Autobot army has ever had. Ironhide is behind them, shooting pretty much everything that poses a threat.

He turns his head to see Arcee engaged with one of the numerous insections, and grits his denta as another 'con attacks her from behind. There's nothing he can do to help the smaller femme, who despite being an excellent fighter due to training under Ironhide, is quickly getting overpowered by her two bigger opponents.

Luckily, Prime steps in and lops of the head off the insecticon, leaving Arcee to quickly offline her other opponent. Eventually, the decepticons are forced to make a retreat as their human allies also make an appearance, helping the 'bots to gain the upper hand. Starscream is leading the charge, and Megatron is nowhere to be seen so it is him that gives the order.

"Decepticons, retreat!" He cries, and the seekers and decepticons alike take to the air. Jazz turns to Ratchet who has taken a blast to the side. The wound isn't serious, but it looks painful.

"Lemme help ya wit' tha'." Jazz says, and Ratchet shakes his head.

"Later, others need attention first." He grunts out, hand over the wound. "You can help me by going back to the base and checking on Prowl's status."

"No need for tha', the bond worked an' ah can feel him. He's offline, but he's stable." Ratchet nods once.

"Good, it's about time." He states curtly before going off to look at the casualties. Despite her close run-in Arcee's injuries are only aesthetic. As usual, the frontliner twins are the most damaged, closely followed by Ironhide. Bumblebee also has a nasty leg wound, and Prime some chassis damage, but considering the amount of decepticons, it could have been a lot worse.

Jazz assists the yellow scout back to the med-bay, only to find that his charge is not where he left her. He groans and looks around, but a scan reveals she isn't in the med-bay or the nearby vicinity. Panic grips him as he realises that she might have been taken by the decepticons.

"Slag, why can't tha' human do as ah say?" He mutters and Bumblebee beeps at him. "Ah better go an' look for 'er."

"Like pit you will. You will stay here where I can see you. And before you go on about the 'cons taking her, I'll send someone else to have a look. Happy?" Ratchet says, and Jazz sighs before nodding, knowing he doesn't really have a choice. Ratchet looks around the med-bay at the various 'bots.

"Prime. Go find Jazz's charge then come back so I can fix that arm puncture."

"Of course Ratchet." Prime replies, before heading out to find Phoenix. Jazz retrieves a nearby patch-kit before setting about repairing part of Bumblebee's leg.

**Phoenix's POV**

After Jazz had left, Phoenix had decided to listen to her guardian before getting worried and really bored. Then she had decided to go and see if she could find a weapons room to go help the 'bots, but had just ended up going underground and getting ridiculously lost in rows upon rows of what looks the Autobot's version of books.

There was lots of weird alien stuff here too that looked pretty interesting and she wondered what it was for. Noticing a weird light coming from a doorway, she ran over to it and noticed a pedestal with an odd object on it.

"Huh. Wonder what that could be?" She mused to herself, before beginning to climb up the pedestal. On top, there was a broken shard of an object with a lot of symbols on it. It was glowing a funny blue colour so she decided to pick it up and have a look at it.

It gave her another weird electric shock like the one she had gotten in the med-bay earlier, and she dropped it in surprise, giving it a suspicious look before a chuckle came from behind her.

"I see you have discovered our archives and the allspark shard." Said a deep voice that was obviously Optimus and she turned to look at the tall 'bot.

"An allspark? What does that do?"

"It was originally a cube that onlined the first sparks of Cybertron. It was lost in the war and we followed it here, to earth and we met Sam and Mikaela who had the location of the allspark, which was being held with Megatron's frozen body. Megatron and I fought for the cube in Mission city, where Sam saved me by placing the cube in Megatron's chest and destroying it, leaving only a few shards."

"Oh, so does it still work?"

"No. This particular shard was used to revive Jazz after Megatron ripped him in half at the battle. Doing so depleted it of power, but as it is a precious artefact of our race, we all felt it right to keep it here." Jazz was killed? The thought in itself was shocking to her, thinking of her guardian dead. Although, she reflected, trust him to attack Megatron of all 'bots.

"So it's definitely dead?" It didn't seem to be, having zapped her like it did.

"Yes. Our scanners can detect no signs of energy being emitted from the allspark." He said somewhat sadly, and she felt sorry for him and the others, having lost their home and the way to create their race.

"I'm sorry."

"It is not your fault." He replied, and they remained that way in silence before she looked back through the door to the rows of 'books'.

"What is that then?"

"Those are our archives. We have downloaded what we can remember of our races History to the archives under all our bases around the world, and what history was stored in the Xanthium when it brought the second wave of Autobots to earth."

"So, a giant library?"

"Yes. Now come, I believe your guardian is getting quite worried about your whereabouts." He said, offering her his hand which she climbed into, giving one last suspicious look at the Allspark shard. It definitely didn't seem dead to me. An odd pang of worry hit her in the chest and she tried to shake off the feeling, but couldn't.

This day just seemed to get weirder and weirder, she thought as Optimus took her back to the med- bay and she was deposited in the servos of a rather worried (and slightly angry) Jazz.

"Ah thought ah told ya to stay!"

"I did! For a while. And then I got bored and I went looking for weapons and got lost in your library-place-thing!" She told him indignantly and Ratchet rolled his eyes.

"She definitely takes after you Jazz." The medic told them and Jazz glared at the medic before looking back down at his charge.

"Are ya okay though?"

"Yeah, are you? Is Prowl awake yet?"

"Ah'm fine, an' Ratch' says Prowler will be online tomorrow. Ya should get some rest ya know, ya are scanning as being tired and hungry."

**Jazz's POV**

"Mm'hmm." She murmured before curling up in her guardian's hand and falling fast asleep. Ratchet pointed a wrench at Jazz threateningly.

"You should get some recharge as well whilst I fix up these two slaggers." The medic growled, gesturing at the Lamborghini twins who were currently under sedation as Ratchet worked on them. All the others had left by now, and Prime had slipped out whilst Jazz had been talking to Phoenix.

"Will do Ratch'." He said, before narrowing his optics. "Afta' ya let meh fix tha' wound. Ah deals ah deal."

"Oh for Primus' sake. If I let you, will you get off my plating?"

"Naturally mech." Jazz replied, and the medic sighed before taking a seat and tossing the patch kit at Jazz who caught it with ease. He set about fixing up the wound as best as he could. Even though he was no medic, most 'bots had been taught in basic training how to patch a wound, and Ratchet had taught most on earth more than strictly necessary. Jazz sighed as he came across older wounds across the medic's plating, rips and tears that had been hastily fixed.

"What?" Ratchet growled.

"Ya should realleh take better care of yaself, 'doc."

"My name is Ratchet, and I take perfectly good care of myself."

"These scars beg ta differ." Ratchet was silent for a moment.

"But then who would take care of the rest of you? There's always something to fix around here." He replied, and Jazz sighed. As much as he hated to admit it, Ratchet was right. That didn't mean Jazz couldn't do anything for the exhausted medic though.

"Point taken." He said, finishing the repair. "Now, ah'm going ta get some recharge and ya are as well."

"Excuse me?"

"Ya heard meh. An' as Prowl's out of action, tha' makes me temporary SIC, so ah can pull rank if ya object."

"You can't be fragging serious."

"Ah am. As temporary SIC I order ya to get some recharge now." He told the unimpressed medic who growled and placed his tools down. "Ya can even recharge opposite the twins if ya are tha' worried about 'em." He said again, and unsurprisingly Ratchet did so, stubborn slagger he was.

"Goodnight, Sir." Ratchet muttered and Jazz placed a blanket on Phoenix before cupping her against his chassis and lying on his berth next to Prowl.

"'Night Ratch'." He said, and there was a pause. "Hey Ratch'? Thanks for caring so much 'bout us stupid slaggers." He said softly, knowing the medic was still online. He thought that Ratchet wasn't going to reply, before Ratchet spoke, equally as soft.

"You're welcome." The medic replied, before snorting and facing the wall. "Someone has to do it."


	16. Here comes the bride!

**A/N: Hey everyone, this chapter is really fluffy with a really major prank at the end that I hope you enjoy! It's about time Jazz and Phoenix got a break from the d-cons, and I'll get back on track with the storyline and the allspark next chapter. This one is just pure pranking nonsense that I really hope you enjoy! Thank you for reading/reviewing and if you like it then please favourite/follow/review this story and all that good stuff. Now, on with the chapter!**

**-AnAshBlackSword**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything to do with transformers / Hasbro/ any referenced stuff in this story. If I did then I'd be too busy living on my private jet to update :)**

**Phoenix's POV**

The next day, Phoenix is finally allowed out of the med-bay along with Jazz. Unfortunately, despite being online, Prowl isn't allowed out yet to Jazz's and Phoenix's dismay. They tried to stay with him, but after a couple of wrenches being thrown at them they decide it's better for Jazz's health if they relocate to the rec room.

In the rec room, she spots Lennox on Ironhide's shoulder and Sideswipe beating Epps and Mikaela at Mario Kart, whilst Sunstreaker polishes his paint. Jazz waves to Sideswipe, rolls his optics and Sunstreaker and takes a seat beside Ironhide with Phoenix still on his shoulder.

"I see Hatchet finally released you both." Ironhide comments, grinning.

"He's still keepin' Prowler though."

"Poor mech." Sideswipe butts in, Mikaela taking advantage of his lack of focus to overtake him, pulling into first position as they cross the line.

"Yes! Get wrecked Sideswipe!" She cheers, jumping up and pointing at the silver mech who groans loudly and tosses the controller away. Epps laughs along and goes over to Ironhide, who places the man next to Lennox. Epps waves down at Phoenix.

"How are you doing then kiddo?"

"Good, it's nice to be away from Hatchet." She replies, and he laughs.

"I'll second you on that. Man has that mech got an temper! So where are you staying now then?"

"Um.. I don't actually know."

"Will… Will… don't you know it's bad manners to leave a lady waiting?" Epps says nudging his friend who rolls his eyes.

"Yeah, you'll be staying in one of the standard rooms for a while until…. Well I'll tell you about that later. I can show you there later, it's really not much to look at." Will says, smiling at her and she decides that he won't be the worst guardian in the world and better than the care workers any day. He seems nice, which is a definite improvement over anything previous, she thinks dryly. Jazz pokes his charge with his finger.

"Why so serious?" He asks and she groans.

"Did you really just use a Batman reference on me?"

"Yup!" He announces and she rolls her eyes.

"Idiot guardian." She tells him jokingly and Sideswipe snickers from across the room.

"Yeah Jazz, don't you know that's so uncool dude? Like, who uses that nowadays?" He mocks and Jazz glares at him. Phoenix looks at Epps and Will.

"Someone please tell me they have something to throw at that idiot."

"Hey!" Sideswipe calls, and Epps tosses her his Wii remote, which she chucks aims at him. To her satisfaction, it catches him in the side of the head, causing Mikaela to laugh whilst he rubs it in annoyance. "If that's scratched my paint, I swear I'll offline you." He grumbles and Jazz nonchantly activates his blades, lazily pointing it at Sideswipe.

"Ya dare try, ah'll offline ya wit' these beauties."

"Keep your armour on, I'm joking!" Sideswipe replies and Jazz deactivates the blades. Sunstreaker looks up towards Jazz and points a finger at him.

"You try and offline Sideswipe and I'll offline you." He replies and Jazz gives him the finger in reply, which Sunstreaker shoots right back.

"Nobody is offlining anybody, sparklings." Ironhide rumbles, causing everyone to glare at him and Jazz to mock him silently. Will, Lennox, Mikaela and Phoenix all laugh as Ironhide smacks Jazz about the helm without seeming to see his mocking.

"Oww!"

"Respect your betters."

"Ya mean mah elders! ….Oww!" He cries again as Ironhide promptly whacks him a second time. Phoenix feels an odd and slightly painful twinge in the back of her head as though she had been whacked there as well and she reaches up to rub it. Nobody notices, except Jazz.

"Ya alrigh' there Phoenix?"

"I'm fine, I just felt a little weird for a second there. No big deal Jazzman."

"Jazzman? Tha's a new one." He chuckles. "Although, ah think ah like it. Has a ring ta it, ya know?" Ironhide nods seriously at him.

"Indeed, like my ears do every time you open your slagging mouth." He rumbles, causing indignant splutters from Jazz and laughs from everyone else in the room. Jazz punches Ironhide good naturedly in the shoulder.

"Well played mah mech."

Mikaela comes over in Sideswipe's hand and holds up some Wii remotes.

"Anyone want to play some Mario with me?" She asks and Phoenix, Epps and Will all raise their hands. Sideswipe takes a seat next to Jazz and places Mikaela on his shoulder so she is opposite Phoenix.

"Hey, I'm Mikaela! I remember you, but I don't think we've actually met properly before. I'm Sam's girlfriend if you've met him. I'm also Ratchet's apprentice/ kind of charge thing." Phoenix shakes her head but leans across to shake Mikaela's hand. Ironhide snorts.

"You are basically his charge, he's just too much of a stubborn slagger to admit it." He says and Mikaela smiles.

"I'm Phoenix and I'm this idiot's charge." She says, patting the side of Jazz's head.

"Yeah, ya can speak for yaself idiot. Mah IQ lowers every time ya talk." Jazz shoots back.

"You guys have IQ?" Phoenix asks and Jazz groans.

"Well nah, we don', but the point remains!" He cries indignantly and everyone laughs at him as Mikaela starts up the game, Sideswipe whining that he wants another turn after. He quickly shuts up though as Ironhide points a cannon in his general direction.

"So how long have you been on base then?" Phoenix asks Mikaela curiously. "And how did you meet the 'bots?"

"I've been on base for about three years ago, and I met the 'bots when they needed Sam to take them to the allspark. I only became Ratchet's apprentice after the battle for the Matrix though, because he didn't think I was capable enough before that and we didn't get along too great. We get along well now though." Mikaela replies and Phoenix nods.

"I know about the Allspark, but what's the Matrix?"

"It's kinda like the allspark, 'cept Prime keeps it in 'is sparkchamber all the time an' it can't make 'bots but it can bring 'em back to life and do stuff only Prime knows 'bout." Jazz tells her. "It was also ah key for the Fallen's machine – he's dead now – an' it harvested suns."

"Nice. I love it when the apocalypse happens." She comments sarcastically and Mikaela laughs at her.

"I think you'll get along with Maggie, you're a lot like her. I'll introduce you to her and Gwen later if you like."

"Sure!" She replies and goes back to Mario Kart. When Phoenix wins, Sideswipe challenges her to a game and to his utter dismay, she kicks his ass quite a bit.

"No fair! She beat me!"

"Ah guess ya are just realleh bad 'Sides." Jazz tells him as the twin moans about being beaten. Ironhide and Sunstreaker roll their optics as Sides whines even more until Mikaela kicks the side of his head.

"Shush up you, or I'll tell Ratchet about that prank you're planning?"

"A prank on Ratchet? I want in!" Phoenix whoops and Will and Epps look over.

"Meh too!"

"Dude, I'm up for pranking Hatchet anytime, anyplace!" Epps calls and Will agrees. Sunstreaker comes over, still inspecting his golden fingers for any sign of dirt or dust.

"I would also be up for some revenge for my last check-up." Ironhide says and Sideswipe grins at them all.

"Well, it's pretty simple really. All we want to do is attach one of Wheeljack's devices to him which will control his voice and movement. What will happen, is we'll paint him up as a bride from one of your human's weddings and then we are going to marry him off to Prime. Unfortunately, this means Prime will be collateral damage but oh well." Phoenix giggled as she imagined the poor mechs being 'married' to each other. They would have a fit!

"I have an idea. Perhaps, I could dress up as a 'vicar'?" Ironhide suggested and Sideswipe nodded eagerly.

"Brilliant! So, we need three teams. One to get Prime, One to get Ratchet and one to get the rec room looking like a wedding reception. The rest of you can dress up as well if you like." Phoenix grinned as she had a brilliant idea.

"Can we paint his wrenches as flowers and give him a bouquet?"

"Yes!" Sideswipe laughed, and began sorting them out into teams. Jazz, Mikaela and Phoenix would be painting Ratchet, Ironhide, Will and Epps on Prime and the twins would be decorating the rec room. With their plans decided, the three teams went their separate ways.

**Jazz's POV**

For the bridal gown, Jazz had retrieved a load of white paint, and silk from what he and the twins had dubbed 'the prankster supply cupboard,' which was in a top secret location so that Prowl, Ratchet and Prime would never discover it. He had also found a load of glitter, which would no doubt be useful as well.

He knocked out Ratchet by slipping strong sedatives in his energon. Prowl was in recharge, but jut to be safe, Jazz sedated his brother as well. Then the three pranksters set about making Ratchet's dress, the material being wrapped around his chassis to form the bodice, and flowing outward to make the 'skirt.'

Finally, Phoenix and Mikaela gleefully made the mech's wrenches into flowers and glued them to his hands with Jazz emptying barreloads of glitter onto poor Ratchet, and musing that the medic was going to need a long bath to get rid of this. At last, they attached the device to Ratchet which made sure the mock wedding would go perfectly to plan.

Work done, the trio ran off to the rec room to help finish the decorations, laughing all the way.

**Phoenix's POV, a few hours later.**

What had been the rec room was now completely unrecognisable. Flowers, decorations and banners were everywhere, with the chairs in two separate rows to form the central isle. The 'bot sized TV had been turned into Ironhide's stand, where two giant sheets of card had been fashioned into a book for him to read from.

Ironhide had made a pair of fake glasses and a giant metal cross to wear, with the other bot's dressing up as various members of the ceremony. Jazz was best man, the twins were the two witnesses and Arcee had agreed to dress up as a bridesmaid. Even better, Will and Epps had managed to get the whole of nest to sit in front of the other bot's as though it was an actual wedding, and Bumblebee was going to blast 'Here comes the bride' from the base speakers.

Now all they had to do was wait.

Optimus was the first to appear. He had been painted black with white flames (which Phoenix thought actually looked good on him) and had a fake wrench-rose attached to his chassis. The poor mech had an expression of pure horror as he arrived before Ironhide, but couldn't move or speak.

Then, there was a boom from the back door as Ratchet arrived.

Dressed from processor-to-peds in white, with a bouquet of flowers, the mech's expression was that of pure rage and anger as 'Here comes the bride' blared from the base speakers and NEST and the 'bots stood up as he walked past them. Phoenix could see that most bot's and men alike were about to fall over laughing.

"Mah sweet Primus, this is amazin'!" Jazz commented and Prime heard him because he shot a very evil look at his TIC. Prime couldn't move his head, but he could doubtless hear the footsteps as Ratchet approached him.

Finally, Ratchet arrived before Ironhide and the device made it so that Prime and Ratchet finally faced each other. The expression of sheer fear Prime had was comical, whilst Ratchet looked so angry he looked like he might burst. The music stop and Ironhide began.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today under the eyes of Primus to celebrate the union of this mech and this…. Femme." He spoke, gesturing to Ratchet at the word femme, causing everyone in the hall to laugh. Ratchet eyed Ironhide with a look that meant his nect check-up would not be pleasant at all.

Ironhide was clearly having trouble keeping his composure as he began to hastily read the vows.

"Do you, Optimus Prime, swear by Primus himself from to love this femme from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish until offlining do you part, according to the law of Primus?"

"I do." Prime replied and the whole room erupted into laughter. Ironhide, now visibly shaking, repeated the vows with Ratchet.

"I do." Ratchet replied, but he sounded like a femme and Phoenix collapsed on Jazz's shoulder and saw that Epps and Lennox were doubled over with some of the 'bots on the floor at the back and many members of NEST also falling over. Ironhide skipped through the rest of the wedding for fear he might fall over from laughing.

He lost his composure as he said the last sentence.

"Optimus Prime…. You m-may now… k-kiss the b-bride." He laughed out and Jazz collapsed as Optimus did so, to both his and Ratchet's horror and embarrassment. Everyone was on the floor now, and it was at that moment that Prowl made his appearance.

"Ratchet? I need my medicine and I was wondering if you were …" Prowl began but stopped as he rounded the corner to see the wedding.

It really didn't help that he had walked in on the kiss part.

Prowl looked in shock from Optimus to Ratchet to the room, before promptly falling over as his logistics circuits glitched. This caused everyone to howl, Ironhide falling over on the floor with Arcee beside him. Then, Phoenix noticed that the twins had scarpered and she kicked Jazz in the side of the head.

"Run!" She shrieked as Ratchet pulled his hands away from the flowers and aimed a wrench at Ironhide, Prime reaching for Jazz at exactly the same moment, looking for all the world like he was going to strangle Jazz.

"TWINS! WHEN I FIND YOU, YOU WILL REGRET THE ORN YOU WERE EVER ONLINED!" Ratchet roared with fury and ran after them, skirts swishing in his wake as Jazz transformed and high-tailed it out of the base, laughing as a furious semi-truck followed them in hot pursuit.

Phoenix reflected that if Prime was about to offline them both, at least they were going out in style.


	17. Stargazing

**Phoenix's POV, rec room.**

Luckily for Phoenix and Jazz, Prime didn't end up offlining them, but he did make them clean up the rec room under the watchful eye of Ratchet who was more than happy to smack the 'bots at any given time. Prowl had been revived by Wheeljack and was nursing a headache in the med-bay which was evidently affecting Jazz as he cursed Prowl under his breath.

Ratchet promptly whacked him around the shoulder, hard.

"Shut up and work faster." He said grimly. Jazz rubbed his shoulder and scowled. Another bang. "And wipe that expression off your faceplates and show some slagging respect." He added somewhat gleefully. Phoenix muttered as her head ached a little too, and she wondered again what that stupid shard had done to her as it had obviously done something weird. Perhaps she would tell Jazz later?

_Bang! _"Ow Ratch'!" Jazz yelped as Ratchet whacked him again. That is, if she even had a guardian after Ratchet was done with them. She spotted Lennox and Epps across the room glaring at Ratchet, along with Ironhide as they conversed in undertones about all the things they would like to do to their joy of a medic.

She sighed and went back to clearing up the masses of confetti which the twins had decided to empty all over the floor. There were ridiculous quantities of the stuff, and Prime had ordered them all, humans included, to clean it all up until there was not one piece of it left. Unfortunately, there was too much to use a hoover on (as Epps had discovered when he blew up one of them) so they were left to scraping it off the floor and putting it in boxes.

Eventually, after a few long and painstaking hours Ratchet saw fit to release them. Jazz scooped her up and made a hasty retreat with Ironhide, Epps and Lennox. The twins did attempt to leave, but Ratchet caught them and dragged them off to God knows where for some special form of torture.

"I thought we'd never get out of there!" She said, giving the rec room and Ratchet the finger. "Slagging demon 'bot."

"I so second that, I ache all over and I've got the training run tomorrow." Epps groaned loudly from where he sat in Ironhide's hand.

"Training run? What's that?" Phoenix questioned him.

"Imagine an obstacle course. Got that? Now, cover it in sticky mud, freezing cold water and God knows what else and time it so if you don't complete it in time you end up on toilet cleaning duty. That's the training run for you." Epps moaned as Lennox laughed at him.

"Good luck man, I don't envy you."

"Thanks, Captain do-little." Epps replied, giving Will a good natured punch. Phoenix looked up at Jazz.

"Where are we going?"

"Ah thought we'd beat ah hasty retreat ta the roof, so if ol' Hatchet comes looking for us, he won' find us. Ya gonna come 'Hide?"

"I believe I will, seeing as I would rather avoid Ratchet's wrath for the time being." He rumbled, and Jazz led them through a maze of corridors until they were outside of the base. There, he and Ironhide were able to climb up one of the walls and sit on the roof, which creaked under the extra weight. Phoenix looked at it sceptically.

"Are you sure this thing will hold?"

"Ah'm sure, ah've sat out here wit' Prime an' Ironhide before. If it can take tha', it can take anythin'." He replied cheerily. Ironhide ignored the jibe and took a seat next to Jazz, releasing Will and Epps onto the roof. Phoenix noted that it was dark, and they could see the stars quite clearly from the roof.

"When did it get so dark?"

"We were in there for a long time. Fragging aft-head twins and their bloody confetti." Epps replied, lying back on the roof and using his arms for a pillow. Phoenix shrieked a little in surprise as Jazz mimicked his position and she was deposited on his chests. She turned to glare at her guardian.

"You could have warned me!"

"Wha' would be the fun in tha'?" Jazz chuckled, and she shook her head at him before lying back on his chest.

"Can you see Cybertron from here Jazz?"

"Not cybertron per se, but yah can see the star nearby. See tha' one?" He said, pointing to one.

"Oh, we call that one the North Star." She answered in surprise.

"Yeah, tha's the one closest to Cybertron."

"Cool." Will murmured from where he was sitting and turned to look at Phoenix. "I never did get to show you where you were staying." He apologised regretfully, and Phoenix shrugged I reply.

"Don't worry about it."

"Ah can take 'er there later." There was a comfortable pause in which Autobots and humans alike enjoyed the utter peace of the moment. "Ya humans 'ave such weird names for ya constellations." Jazz said finally, and she felt the movement as he shook his head.

"Indeed they do. I find it odd that one shares the first name as Optimus."

"It does?" Phoenix asked curiosly and Ironhide nodded.

"Yes, before he became a Prime, Optimus was called Orion Pax. You have a constellation of the great hunter, Orion."

"Huh. I don't really know many constellations. I was never really taught any." She said wistfully. The home hadn't had the time nor the interest to bother with such things.

"Well tha' ones Orion. The three stars over there which are also known as the 'three kings', make up 'is belt. Tha' one over there is the 'Fryin' Pan' 'cause it apparently looks like ah Fryin' Pan." Jazz said in amusement, pointing them out to her.

"Did you have constellations on Cybertron then?"

"Yes, but they were very different to the ones you have although I suppose we would have looked at your Sun as our 'North Star.'" Ironhide answered before Jazz.

"I suppose you must miss your own constellations." Phoenix put in.

"We do, as we miss our home planet very much. Although there are a lot of things your planet has that Cybertron did not. The wide variety of organic life is amazing, as is your creativity."

"Music for one thing an' although he would nevah admit it, ah've seen Sunny admirin' yah artwork too."

"Didn't you have music on Cybertron?"

"We did, but nothin' like ya humans can do. We don' have the righ' vocal cords for singin' and we didn't expand our instruments as much." Jazz replied thoughtfully. "We did have an instrument similar to ah piano."

"Did you play?"

"Yeah, before the war ah was a professional musician. Ah even played for the high courts of Iacon one orn." Ironhide let out a surprised noise.

"Really?"

"Yup."

"Huh." Ironhide replied. "Guess you learn something new every orn."

"Ah guess so. Anythin' else ya wanna know 'bout Cybertron?"

"So… you said we had more organic life right? Did you have any animals on Cybertron?" She questioned and Jazz considered it.

"Not realleh. The only thing we had was Scraplets which we hunted down an' killed wit' ah passion. Nasty little buggers ate livin' metal so we killed most of 'em. We 'ad Predacons, but they only lived on the Sea of Rust an' were so few as to be extinct."

"What's a Predacon? Sounds nasty." Will commented.

"They were. Imagine ah big dragon an' make it metal an' wit' the temper of Hatchet on a realleh bad day an' tha' ah Predacon for ya."

"Fun." Epps muttered sarcastically. "Did you ever meet one?"

"Not personally. The mechs brave or foolish enough to go near one usually got offlined unless they were from the desert tribes, but by the time the war had started the tribes had been virtually wiped out. Most were offlined due to their supposedly primitive nature or sold into slavery." Ironhide replied, sounding somewhat sad about it.

"Wasn't there ah rumour tha' Hatchet met one?"

"A rumour yes, but the mechs responsible were welded to the base ceiling by their afts although it could have been true. He's certainly old enough to have met one." Ironhide snorted as he said the last part and Jazz chucked along with him.

"Ya keep tha' up an' you'll be sharin' their fate." Jazz grinned and Ironhide cuffed him lightly.

"Aft."

"Slaghead."

"Pit-spawn."

"Hatchet spawn."

"I'd certainly hope not. God help any sparklings that mech ever had or may have." Ironhide replied, crossing his arms and failing to hide a grin as the humans and Jazz laughed. Phoenix eventually found herself drifting off to sleep as Jazz and Ironhide traded insults, until Jazz poked her with a finger.

"Mmm?" She responded.

"Sleepy? Ah should take ya back down to ya room."

"Mmhmm." She murmured, curling up into the warm metal. The last thing she was aware of was being carried somewhere.


	18. A zappy thing?

**A/N: So this chapter explains what's been happening with Phoenix after that shard zapped her, which will lead to some pretty interesting developments later on. Maggie and Glen also make their first appearance in this chapter, and we've got some movie fun at the beginning. (Don't kill me twilight fans – and I do like HG, Sam just doesn't XDD) That said, Thank you for reading and all that good stuff. If you like this chapter or this story then please review 'cause it makes me happy that you guys are enjoying reading this story as much as I enjoy writing it! **

**-AnAshBlackSword**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own transformers, twilight, Hunger Games or any other film/song references in this chapter. I only own OC's, and the story itself. **

**Phoenix's POV**

She wakes up in a strange bed inside a room she doesn't recognise, but guesses must be one of the spare rooms designated to N.E.S.T. It's pretty standard accommodation with two rooms and an ensuite. She explores a bit, but it's very bare and there is nothing of interest lying around for her to investigate.

Phoenix also notes that she's got a really bad headache and wonders if it's worth going to Ratchet for painkillers, but decides against that and goes off to find Jazz. Thing is, she isn't exactly familiar with the base and is getting rather lost wandering the corridors. She's just about given up hope when to her relief she comes across the rec. room. Bumblebee, Mikaela and a boy she supposes must be Sam are in there.

"Good morning." She greets them and Mikaela waves her over.

"Hey there! So this is Sam, my boyfriend and I'll introduce you to Maggie and Glen when they come over. They are supplying the coffee and doughnuts this morning."

"That's if Glen doesn't eat them all." Sam mutters, rolling his eyes before holding out his hand for her to shake. She does so and goes over to Bumblebee who gives her a hand up to the 'bot sized sofa.

"Good mornin'! Good mornin'! Good mornin' too you!" Plays from his radio and he beeps cheerfully at her after.

"Good morning to you as well 'Bee!" She greets him and turns to watch Mikaela sorting through several boxes of movies along with Sam, obviously looking for something to watch.

"Twilight? God, someone on this base has awful film taste." Mikaela mutters, throwing it aside into another box.

"Urgh." Sam complains before holding up another film. "Mockingjay part 1? No thank you." He groans and goes to toss it aside but Mikaela glares at him and snatches it before he can do so.

"I like that movie! It's good!" She says to her boyfriend, who holds his hands up placatingly.

"I know, I know. It's just we've seen it more than 50 times in the past week along Micky." He says, and she sighs before placing it in the box.

"I suppose, it is one of my favourites though." She sighs, placing the film gently in the discarded box, only to glare at Sam as he tosses something in and it hits the case with a loud 'Smack!' At that moment, two people she supposes must be Maggie and Glen arrive.

"We've got the snacks!" Glen announces with a mouth full of doughnut.

"You mean you've got the snacks." Maggie replies, rolling her eyes at her friend before waving up at 'Bee and Phoenix.

"Hey there! Haven't seen you around here before. What's your name?" She says brightly in an Australian accent.

"Yeah, I'm pretty new and my name's Phoenix. You must be Maggie."

"Yep, and this idiot over here is Glen." She says, jerking a thumb at Glen who is discussing something with Sam, gesturing at various movies and shaking their heads at each failure. "You still haven't picked anything Miki?"

"No, can't find anything we like or that Sam agrees to." She sighs, before her face lights up. "Hey, maybe Phoenix can pick since she's never picked before!"

"Yeah, I'm down for that!" Maggie says, and Sam and Glen agree but not before Sam slips in a comment about not picking Mockingjay. Bee places her down gently and she looks through the films, almost all of which she has never seen before. She doesn't really know what she likes, but eventually decides on "I, Robot," which Glen whoops at and everyone else agrees with quite happily.

Phoenix decides that she quite likes the film – and Maggie and Glen too. If only she didn't have this headache, which unfortunately seems to be getting worse and worse. About halfway through the film, her guardian finally makes an appearance, and notices that something is wrong almost immediately.

"Ya okay there 'lil lady?"

"Just a headache." She mutters, although it feels like her skull is being split open. Jazz nods sympathetically.

"Prowler's got ah processor ache now also, tha's why Hatchet kicked meh out. Although, if ah took ya to 'im, he could give ya somethin'." He tells her and Maggie looks over worriedly.

"Aw, you should have said something, I've got some ibuprofen in my bag."

"Thanks, but it feels like it'll need more than Ibuprofen to shift." She replies and Jazz scans her.

"Funny thing is, ya ain't showin' any signs of brain-swellin' or nothin'. Ah think we better take ya ta the Docbot."

"Alright." She replies, and climbs into his hand willingly, waving goodbye to the humans and Bee as he carries her off. Groaning, she lies down in Jazz's hand, then glares up at him as she feels the tingling sensation of being scanned. "Oi!" She growls at him, before a wave of dizziness followed by an awful pain shoots through her head.

"Just checkin' it ain't nothin' serious."

"Mmm." She murmurs. "I'm going to take a little lie down. Stupid headache." She mutters, curling up and cursing the shard for zapping her as she's sure it has something to do with this horrible pain. "I swear, if this is something to do with that stupid piece of shard thingamajig…"

"Shard thingamajig?" Jazz asks sharply, but she's in a lot of pain and is pretty much rambling at her guardian now.

"Yeah, stupid allspark mawhatsit gave me an electric shock, like static after jumping on a trampoline or something… mmm…. Stupid-ass shard thing ….. probably gave me this headache and all….damnit." She rambles on as she shuts her eyes. The pain is still there, but she's almost fast asleep now and then she won't have to worry about it….

**Jazz's POV**

He listened to his charge in concern as she rambled on about the shard of the allspark. He knew that she'd been found there by Optimus a couple of days ago, but he wasn't aware that it had zapped her. He should probably tell Ratchet when they got there. He watched her amusedly as she went on about 'stupid zappy thingies', and he noted that she was rather like Prowl when delirious and in pain. Prowl tended to ramble about reports more than allspark shards though.

He burst into the med-bay and Ratchet gave him a look with searing that could melt even Megatron.

"I thought I told you to stay out!" The medic hissed, aware of Prowl on the nearby berth. Prowl unfortunately suffered from severe processor aches after glitching, and Jazz's constant talking did not help.

"Ah was, but Phoenix has a bad headache. Ah real bad one, an' she's ramblin' on 'bout the allspark shard, sayin' it zapped her or somethin'? An' ah can't find anythin' on mah scanners that indicates she's got ah headache, but she does so maybe the cube did somethin'?" He tells the medic, and Ratchet goes from annoyed to serious in a single nanoclick.

"Put her down here and let me run some scans. Is she awake?"

"Kinda, but she ain't makin' any sense."

Ratchet sighs, before proceeding to pull out a very complicated looking scanner. Jazz takes a seat on the berth beside Phoenix which is the one opposite Prowl who is also mumbling away about late reports and pranking twins.

"Slagging zappy ….. shard thing…." Phoenix mumbles beside him, although he can't tell if she's awake or sleep talking. Ratchet looks from Jazz to Phoenix.

"Zappy thing?" Ratchet prompts.

"Zappy…. Things" She emphasizes, making it plural things.

"Oh?"

"Yeah… first there was weird blue…. Lightning stuff and then the bloody allspark-shard-whatever the hell that was." She tells him and Ratchet watches her like a hawk.

"Blue lighting."

"Mmm… came out of … him." She mutters, gesturing in the rough direction of Jazz. "You know… after that explosion." She goes on, before curling up again. Ratchet points his scanner at Jazz threateningly.

"Lie down and don't move. I need to check something." He hisses and Jazz complies immediately, lest he should get wrenched. Ratchet scans him, then Prowl then Phoenix again, before getting another scanner and doing the same. The medic inhales sharply and sighs.

"Well… that certainly is odd." He says, and Jazz risks sitting up.

"What is?"

"Physically, there is nothing wrong with her, however her brain wavelengths are the same as yours and Prowls." Jazz gives the medic a stumped look and the medic sighs and reiterates what he just said. "Basically, each being has a different brain wavelength yes? That is, unless they share a bond in which their sparks resonate in harmony like you and Prowl. Humans are on a completely different wavelength and it is therefore impossible for them to bond with us. However, Phoenix is somehow on exactly the same frequency, meaning she is somehow, impossibly bonded to you and Prowl." The medic finishes, and Jazz gapes at him before shutting his denta.

"What?"

"You heard me. You successfully broke the laws of physics, species and the universe and bonded with a human." Ratchet says sarcastically.

"H-how?"

"I'd say that when the 'blue lightning' shot out of you, it was because your spark recognised Phoenix as a possible bond member. However, she was and should be incompatible as a human. The only thing I can come up with to make it possible is that the allspark combined with the energon mixed in with her blood somehow allowed her body to alter and form a bond with you." Ratchet finishes, and Jazz stares at the medic in shock, before looking down at Phoenix.

"So tha' means the headache is Prowlers an' she's actually okay." Jazz says, and Ratchet stares at him with disbelief before smacking him round the head with a wrench.

"NO! You stupid slagging idiot, she's anything but okay! I don't know what effect this could have on the rest of her body! It could make her stronger or she could offline tomorrow for all I know! This is impossible and yet it's still happened!" The medic roars, lashing out at various parts of the wall and pounding it in frustration. "And how in the name of Primus are we going to explain this to the humans?! The humans will offline us all, and I'll make sure you are first you idiot!" Ratchet shouts, and Jazz has the good sense not to tell Ratchet that it isn't actually his fault.

"Frag off! ….. Slaggin' …twins… brig duty… next 4 orns." Prowl says incoherently from across the room in response to Ratchet's shouting. The medic shoots Prowl a very dark look that makes Jazz's energon curdle. Then, the furious medic goes back to studying Phoenix.

"At least we can stop the headache righ'?"

"I suppose so... I don't know how strong the bond is but if you look for it you might be able to block it the same way you are currently blocking Prowl so it doesn't affect you." Ratchet says, switching from seriously fragged off to calm and collected with ease. It unnerves most 'bots, as they never know whether the medic will treat them nicely or offline them with a wrench. Jazz is more inclined to prepare for the latter.

"Ah guess ah can look for it." He replies, and offlines his optics to go searching through his processor. The logical place to look would be near Prowl's bond, which is represented in his mind as a thread of sorts which is striped black and white. There are other, broken threads close to this one signalling the broken bonds of Jazz's offlined creators and siblings long before the war. He looks through the carnage, and eventually finds something of interest.

A gold, red and black striped thread is near Prowl's, but it is much thinner and almost unnoticeable, signalling that the bond is rather weak as far as bonds go but strong enough for her to feel his pain, and Prowl's too. Sighing, he focuses on blocking off Prowl from Phoenix, and it seems to work because when he onlines his optics, Phoenix has stopped thrashing around and is instead sleeping somewhat peacefully, although shadows still flit across her face.

"Tha' should help ah bit, but Prowler would 'ave to block it ta take away the pain completely."

"It'll do and she won't offline herself from pain."

"Humans do tha'?"

"They can go into something called a coma, which is similar to being in statis except they cannot turn it off and wake up at will."

"Great." Jazz groans. Humans offline too easily for his taste, and now he'll have to watch himself even more carefully to make sure the bond doesn't hurt her. It's weird, being bonded to a human, but Jazz likes having the small presence at the back of his mind. It's alien, but familiar at the same time and he can recognise it now.

"Quit daydreaming on me and watch your human." Ratchet snaps at him whilst running various scans on Prowl and administering another painkiller.

"Wha' does this mean Ratch'?" Jazz asks and Ratchet thinks it over.

"I'm not sure. I don't know if it'll get strong enough for you to actually talk with each other like you do with Prowl, or if it will just fade away naturally. It seems to me like Primus has something to do with this, just like he had something to do with those glyphs."

"Ya reckon she's special ta Primus then?"

"It seems so. Perhaps the allspark is not as dead as we thought either if it is capable of 'zapping' humans." Ratchet replies before venting softly. Something nags at Jazz, a question he had not previously thought of.

"Hey Ratch'? If name glyphs are unique ta each 'bot, then ta know wha' Phoenix's says, ya must 'ave seen it on another 'bot before righ'?" Jazz presses, and Ratchet tips his head forwards slightly. "So.. was it ya creator's name or somethin'?"

"No."

"No? Who's was it then? Ah friend? An enemy? Ah decepticon?"

"None of the above." The medic answers curtly before turning back to his tools. "I had a sister, once. She was offlined long before you were even online." Ratchet says quietly before pointing a wrench at him. "Tell any 'bot, and I'll wrench you into the next millennium."

"Ah wouldn't dream of it!" Jazz says cheerfully, although he feels anything but cheerful. He wants to ask more, but knows that will only merit a wrench to the helm or worse knowing Ratchet's evil temper.

"Also, I'll explain to Phoenix when she wakes up what this is all about. You however, can explain this to your delightful, rule-obsessed brother without him glitching. If he does glitch, I'll weld your sorry aft to the wall of Prime's office." Ratchet threatened and Jazz groaned, knowing such a feat was almost impossible. This was not going to be a fun conversation.


	19. The aftermath of 'zappy things'

**A/N: Okay, I'm a terrible person for not updating, I know! But I'm about to go through some major exams so I actual have a reason for my hiatus, other than me being lazy XD That being said, I've been putting this together in bits and pieces and made this into an extra long chapter for all my wonderful reviewers/followers who have put up with my irregular updates. I may or may not get anything put up for the next 3 weeks due to having a two week exam period and being buried under revision, yay -_- but, after that there will be another extra-long chapter after that and possibly a couple of small ones before then if I find the time. **

**Thank you to everyone who has reviewed/favourited/followed this story! You guys are like the wrenches to Ratchet or datapads to Prowl, whichever you prefer! Have some virtual cookies and hugs. Also, there's going to be a poll and some information going up on my profile if you would like to request any future oneshots after these three weeks **

**For now, let's get on with the story! **

**DISCLAIMER! I own nothing except OC's. **

**Medbay, Ratchet's POV**

Prowl did end up glitching, and Jazz ended up welded to the wall of Prime's office much to Prime's amusement and annoyance.

All this happened whilst Phoenix was still out cold and Ratchet realised the job of telling the youngling what had happened to her would fall to him. The medic was unsure of how she would react to the news, and so when he heard her stirring vented heavily several times before straightening.

"How are you feeling?" He asked, in a tone that did not betray how he felt. She groaned loudly in reply.

"Like I got hit by a truck. Several trucks in fact, and not just any trucks – think Optimus Prime Semi Truck, trailer and all." Phoenix moaned and Ratchet nodded.

"Here are the correct painkillers." He said, handing her some pills and water with his holoform. She did not look at all surprised as it then fizzled out of existence, instead snatching the pills and swallowing them gratefully.

"Thanks Ratchet." She said as the painkillers kicked in almost immediately. These were a version Ratchet had modified himself so they had a shorter reaction time within the human body and were pretty useful.

"You are welcome. Shall I explain what has happened?"

"I didn't think anything happened at all, but alright then." Phoenix said offhandedly and Ratchet vented again.

"You have somehow managed to create a bond with Jazz and Prowl." He stated, and watched the look of confusion appear on her face.

"I know about Jazz – we took the vows, but are you glitched or something because there is no way I would do that with Prowl, and no way he would do that with me." She replied sceptically. Ratchet rubbed the bridge of his nose and elaborated.

"No, I mean you have created a sparkbond with them, like they have with each other. Yes, I know it is impossible but it seems the allspark has made it possible by 'zapping' you, along with the energy from their sparkchambers and the energon in your blood." Ratchet told her and she processed the information before the look cleared and she met his optics sharply.

"You mean… they can see inside my head?"

"Precisely."

"Does Prowl know?" She asked and in answer Ratchet gestured to the mech on the berth opposite.

"He took it rather well as you can see." Ratchet said sarcastically. "This does mean you will be in here for a while so I can monitor your condition." He added and she glared at him grumbling under her breath.

"Where's Jazz?"

"Welded to the wall of Prime's office by his sorry aft." Ratchet answered shortly and did not elaborate further. He did however, allow himself a small smirk. To his surprise, Phoenix did not talk as she usually did but instead remained silent for a while, thinking things over.

"What do I do then?" She asked the medic timidly.

"I don't actually know, young one. Jazz has accepted it well enough and although you cannot feel much yet it may grow stronger. As for Prowl…." Ratchet began before tailing off. As a medic, he knew a lot about Prowl that most mechs did not. Like the fact he refused to get close to anyone other than Jazz, so this would certainly be a develop Prowl might shun. "Give him time." Ratchet finally decided as an answer. Phoenix did not look satisfied.

"Damn shard. Prowl was starting to like me and all and now he probably won't." She grumbled, drawing her legs up to her chest and tracing over the name glyph with a finger. Ratchet thought that perhaps a distraction might be in order as negative emotions could affect her recovery from her previous injuries too.

Venting, the medic did something he never thought he would do. He commed the terror twins for help.

**:: Are you and Sunstreaker out of the brig, Sideswipe? ::** He asked, knowing they had been put in the brig after that prank they had pulled with the 'wedding'.

**:: Yes. What do you want? ::** The twin asked sharply.

**:: It's a long story, but Phoenix is back in med-bay and is experiencing negative emotions which could affect her recovery. She needs a distraction and gets along with you well enough. ::**

**:: No Prowl or Jazz? ::**

**:: Prowl glitched and may not be wanting to talk to her when he comes round. Jazz is compromised. ::** Ratchet explained and could almost feel Sideswipe's curiosity over why Prowl might not want to talk to her.

**:: We are coming now, Sideswipe out. ::** The lambo answered. **:: We expect a full explanation later.::** He added as an afterthought., giving Ratchet no time to reply before the line went dead. Ratchet snorted at the twin's manners before turning back to Phoenix.

"Sideswipe and Sunstreaker will be arriving shortly."

"Why?"

"They wish to spend time with you." He replied, not letting on that he had called them. Unfortunately the youngling had guessed as much already.

"Thanks for calling them."

"I did not."

"You did. How else would they know I was in here again if Jazz is welded to the wall?" Phoenix deadpanned and Ratchet said nothing, merely accepted her point with a dip of his helm. "Thanks for caring." She added and Ratchet nodded again. Luckily, the twins burst through the door at that very moment and distracted Phoenix from him.

"Hey there!" Sideswipe grinned at her, Sunstreaker trailing behind.

"Sides!" She squealed as she hugged his finger like she would with Jazz. "Sunny!"

"Don't call me that." The golden twin automatically answered. He did not offer her his finger for fear he would get 'squishy germs.' They both took seats on the berth with Phoenix in Sideswipe's servos.

"Did Prime beat you up a lot?" She asked excitedly and Ratchet was pleased to see that his idea had worked. Phoenix was cheering up already at talking to the twins.

"Nah, merely gave us the same old lecture before chucking us in the brig. Ratchet had the honour of slagging us up." Said 'bot snorted.

"You deserved it, slaggers." Ratchet declared before turning back to cleaning the still-blackened med-bay. It would be a while before they could persuade Galloway to increase the budget to fix it up and so Ratchet was doing the best he could repairing his various tools. Luckily, nothing too expensive was broken and he could repair most injuries with what he had.

He wondered what Phoenix would think when she met the afthead liason. He wondered what the liason would think of her. Galloway would probably make their lives even more miserable for it just because he could.

The three of them were deep in conversation by now, and to Ratchet's relief Phoenix was doing the explaining about the bond. The twins seemed pretty understanding at least and were cheering her up with prank ideas for Prowl if he was too much of a 'stick in the mud.'

"If you make him glitch, you're fixing him." Ratchet input as Sunny suggested dropping paint on the poor SIC yet again. To Prowl's credit, they had tried various ones above his door and the tactician always detected those. Unfortunately, even Prowl could not stop the paint bombs when the twins rushed by and threw them at him too fast for the tactician to dodge.

"Miserable fragger." Sides commented and Ratchet aimed a wrench at his head in reply and grinned as a resounding 'smack!' indicated he had not missed. Sides whined.

"Do shut up Sides." Sunny sighed at his brother. Of the twins, Sunny acted like the oldest and was quite often the more mature. Unless, he was whining about his paint again.

Then, Prowl onlined groggily and Ratchet rushed to help him.

"Easy. That was some glitch."

"Tell me Jazz was joking." The tactician groaned and Ratchet shook his helm from side to side. The twins actually shut up for once along with Phoenix.

"Unfortunately not." Ratchet answered as he gave Prowl some energon to increase his low fuel levels. The mech was still repairing from the other day as well, which didn't help one bit. Prowl then spotted Phoenix and the twins and straightened on reflex into 'Commander Prowl mode.'

"Twins, Phoenix." He greeted in a curt tone.

"Prowl." They all said in unison as Prowl's optics landed on Phoenix in particular. She shifted a little under his scrutiny and Sideswipe absent mindedly brought her closer to his chassis, Sunny drawing nearer to them. Prowl's gaze made every species uncomfortable, it seemed.

"I apologise." Prowl said in the same cold manner.

**Phoenix's POV**

It was obvious from his tone Prowl had not taken the news well. Gone from his voice was the friendly undertone it had held previously when they had spoken. It was cold-mannered, like Jazz had said he could be although this was the first time she had heard it for herself. Phoenix decided she definitely preferred friendly Prowl.

"It's not your fault. I touched the allspark."

"You were not to know. It is not your fault either." Prowl said in a way that made it feel like he did blame her a little. Well, she didn't know what alien relics look like! Who was she, fragging Primus?! Phoenix thought about the next way to phrase what she wanted to say.

"I hope this will not affect you too much." She thought, wondering if she should have added a sarcastic ''Sir" to the end of that sentence.

"Rest assured, it will not affect my capabilities. I hope we can continue as before, with you as my brother's charge." He added, and Phoenix had a sinking suspicion that meant he wasn't even going to give the bond, or her, a chance. Merely pretend nothing had changed.

"I hope the same, Commander." She replied formally and noted the sideways look Sideswipe gave her. Prowl inclined his head before turning to Ratchet.

"Am I cleared for duty?"

"Light duty only, and I expect you back every day or more if anything hurts or goes wrong. But yes, you are." Ratchet replied in a way that meant he didn't approve. They did need Prowl back though, his computer was needed to arrange missions much as Ratchet disliked it.

"Then I will take my leave." Prowl said in the same formal tone before leaving without another word. Phoenix wondered if the small tremor of his wings was imagined or real as she watched his retreating back before the doors shut. As they did so, Sideswipe launched into a tirade of insults.

"Fragging cold-sparked emotionless piece of scrap tactician!" He roared at the door and Sunstreaker had the same look written on his faceplates.

"You know how he is Sideswipe. Give him time to adjust." Ratchet said, although he sounded uncertain to Phoenix and she wondered if he was just saying that because she was there.

"I guess." She said, showing she didn't believe the medic. To his good graces, the twins and Ratchet didn't argue with her.

"Can I go?" She asked and Ratchet debated the idea.

"Alright. Be back after dinner and don't do anything stupid. Watch her." He said seriously, aiming the last sentence at the twins who mock saluted before carrying her out of the door and down the corridor to the rec. room.

Only the humans and arcee were in there, including Lennox who waved when he saw her. Sideswipe set her down beside him and he picked up on her expression immediately.

"Why the long face?" He asked.

"Prowl's being an afthead." Sunstreaker answered for her and Lennox's eyes widened in understanding.

"Well… I had some news, but if it isn't the right time then…."

"No, tell me." Phoenix insisted, sitting up straight again. News? For her? The idea would have been laughable merely a week ago. Nowadays, anything was possible.

"Well, you know I am your guardian now? Legally?" Lennox asked and she nodded. "I was wondering if you'd like to come home with me next week. I've got a couple of days off and Ironhide and I are going back to my farm. I've got a wife, Sarah and a 4 year old daughter called Annabelle, or Annie." He explained, pulling out a picture of a smiling blonde woman with a pouting child who had her Mother's eyes and her Father's hair.

"I'd love to." She replied immediately. Will sounded like he was offering her a family, of sorts instead of just being the legal name on the paper. It was a touching offer, that he wanted her to meet his real family.

"Great!" Will said, pleased. "We can bring Jazz too, Prime cleared him to come with us and Ironhide although Ratchet might insist on someone else going." Will said, and Phoenix noted that someone would have to explain to Will about the allspark. She decided Ratchet would probably do that for her as she didn't feel like explaining it again. Not now, at least. "Anyway, this is Arcee." Will said, gesturing to the female 'bot who smiled at her.

"We've met, but never in ideal situations. I hope I can make a better impression this time." Arcee said sheepishly and Phoenix smiled at her, reaching out to shake her finger in reply.

"Me too. Well, I'm Phoenix."

"I'm Arcee, and Chromia and Ironhide are my surrogate creators." Arcee said by way of introduction. "I'm a front-liner and sharpshooter."

"Nice! What's that like? Having them as creators?" She asked curiosly. She didn't know that much about creators and their sparklings yet, but she did know that Ironhide had a guardian-ward bond with Chromia and Ironhide after Jazz had told her on their adventures before she had arrived on base.

"It's good. They take good care of myself and Bee and they trained me to be a very good fighter."

"Not better than me!" Sideswipe input, bragging slightly and Arcee raised an optic ridge at him.

"Cocky afthead." She said smartly and Sideswipe gaped at her whilst Sunny just snickered in the background. Phoenix decided she rather liked Arcee at that moment as Sides spluttered. Arcee ignored him.

"Chromia is good at hand-to-hand, although she does love her guns much like Ironhide and she was the weapons specialist for the femme division."

"There's a femme division."

"There used to be anyway. Elita-1, Prime's sparkmate led it but she was offlined during the end of the war. Chromia was separated in the chaos but we know she escaped as Ironhide could still feel her presence. I don't know how many of my femme friends survived. There weren't many to begin with anyway as mechs always outnumbered femmes." Arcee explained and Phoenix patted her finger. It seemed like Arcee had lost a lot of friends to the war, as had most 'bots she had come across.

"Chromia was a hard-aft if ever I saw one." Sunny said and although it sounded off-hand, Phoenix knew it was a compliment coming from Sunstreaker.

"My friends there were Moonracer and Flare-up and I hope they survived with Chromia. She trained us together along with Elita even though they were not her charges as they were older than me. Moonracer was a sharpshooter, and Flare-up a frontliner."

"Flare-Up was a femme of many talents." Sideswipe added, wiggling his optic ridge at Phoenix.

"Unlike yourself, Sideswipe, who couldn't get a femme if his spark depended on it." Phoenix commented and Sides stared in disbelief at her again. Arcee shared a look with Phoenix before beginning to laugh alongside her.

**Prowl's POV**

Prowl couldn't believe this, not at all. It was illogical and impossible and Primus, he didn't want anyone else in his head other than Jazz. She wasn't a bad human, and he liked her well enough. But he liked Ironhide as a friend too, and definitely didn't want him in his head!

And she was human no less! A sparkling at that. How could she even begin to understand what he had been through? How could he show her his memories of Praxus? The war? She'd never get such destruction, such betrayal.

The logical thing to do was block the bond and continue as before. She didn't seem to mind the idea from what she had said anyway. It would be awkward talking to her now, yes, but Prowl could manage it. He could make it so he didn't see her that much anyway by staying in his office. Jazz would try and persuade him otherwise, but Prowl was determined not to budge on this.

Unfortunately, said mech happened to waltz in at that very moment after being removed from the wall by Wheeljack and Optimus.

"How are ya doin' Prowler?"

"I am fine." Prowl answered and Jazz snorted.

"Don't give meh tha' slag. I can feel ya lyin' tah meh, in here." Jazz said, tapping his chassis over his sparkchamber.

"It's impossible." Prowl stated.

"It's happened though. It could work if ya…"

"No. Giving it a try is not an option." Prowl said instantly and noted how Jazz's visor switched to a darker shade of blue. Not anger or fear then, because then it would be lighter. Disappointment? The idea did not sit well with Prowl, but neither did having a human sparkling in his processor.

"She's nice, Prowler."

"I know, and I'm happy for you both. She will be a good charge."

"Ya still won't consider it though? Not even a little?" Jazz asked hopefully. Prowl shook his head.

"Maybe… in future. She's still young." Prowl finally decided, not wanting to crush his brother's spark. He highly doubted he ever would though and turned back to his datapads.

"It wasn't her fault." Jazz suddenly said and Prowl's doorwings snapped to attention as Jazz hit the nail on the head.

"I am aware."

"You still blame her though." Jazz said, and a note of accusation crept into his voice. Prowl winced, he didn't want a human driving any wedges between them.

"I … need time to adjust. I know it is not her fault in my processor, but my spark… disagrees with me." He said by way of explanation. The animosity faded from Jazz's faceplate and tone as he nodded and spoke again.

"Alrigh', ah know ya need time, ah just…."

"I know." Prowl said, cursing his stupid processor. If Jazz had been bonded to the twins, they would have been overjoyed to have a bond with the human. His battle computer and logic circuits were kicking up a storm about all the dangers involved and he didn't even want to think about what his spark was doing lest he short-circuit and glitch again. "How did you get off the wall anyway?" Prowl asked, changing the subject. To his relief, Jazz grinned.

"Jackie an' Prime. Though Prime early blew ah gasket tryin' tah get meh down. He's relieved tah 'ave his office again."

"Any'bot would be." Prowl said dryly, making Jazz chuckle.

"The wall will need ah repaint. If it was any'bot but tha' slaggin' medic, Prime would offline 'em." Jazz chuckled and Prowl did a little too as he received the memory. Then, Jazz shifted and looked around rather guiltily.

"You should check on your charge." Prowl said, picking up on his brother's train of thought through their bond.

"Yeah. Ah'll be back later wit' ya energon." He said and Prowl inclined his helm in reply, not allowing his inner turmoil to seep through as Jazz left. When the mech was gone, he let out a vent of relief before burying himself in datapads to distract himself, 'light duty' orders be fragged.


	20. everyone's favourite liason

**A/N: We will be getting into the beginning of the events of the third movie now although they will be quite different as you will soon find out! There's also the return of my favourite villain, and some Jazz/Phoenix bonding. as well as some Galloway bashing. Prowl will only be making brief appearances for a few chapters so the rest of the story can happen, but don't worry because after these next few he will have some pretty long bits. Thank you for reading, and please review and if you have the time please check out the poll on my profile regarding future one-shots as well!**

**\- AnAshBlackSword **

**?'s POV**

The mech had no expression as he punished the soldiers responsible for letting his experiments escape from right under his nasal-plating. When he was done, he ordered the others to clean up the mess of their bodies before setting up a transmission to Soundwave who was onboard the Nemesis.

**:: Shockwave: Has query? ::** Soundwave responded.

**:: I desire a mobilisation of the special weapon. Experiment 10267 and 10385 have been rescued by the Autobots, and a recovery is needed. ::** Shockwave explained toneleslly. Perhaps, if Shockwave had feelings he would have gotten on well with Soundwave. As it was, neither particularly cared but appreciated the lack of feelings in an odd sort of way. Emotions were a nuisance neither could understand. They got in the way of work.

**:: Soundwave: Will inform Megatron::** Soundwave said and Shockwave waited briefly as Megatron joined the transmission.

**:: Shockwave. I see you have failed in your objective to investigate sparkbonds and the … human factor. :** Megatron purred down the line in a voice Shockwave's computer warned him was dangerous.

**:: Negative, My Lord. My knowledge of sparkbonds has increased significantly and as my back up did not work when they attempted to re-bond then I believe when I recover the Autobot I can establish establish a permanent block. This would prove useful as completely severed bonds would render many Autobots useless in their war effort. :: **Shockwave said in the same tone, not bothering to explain the details or how he knew his precaution had failed.

He had designed the block so that if they tried to re-bond, it should destroy one of both of them. However, scans did indicate there was a 15% chance of them remaining online, which rose to 65% if you included the Autobot medic in the equation. This was a factor Shockwave needed to work around as the medic had proved too hard to remove in the past.

However, as Scalpel who was lurking around the Autobot base had informed him, his precaution had not worked and apparently there were some interesting developments of the human now being included in the bond.

**:: Good Shockwave. What of the human factor? ::**

**:: Scalpel needs more time. I need it recovered to see the affect energon has had on its body :: **And also to look at this impossible new bond, but Megatron did not need to know that or he might demand to see for himself and that would hinder progress by 20% or more.

**:: Very well, I will mobilise our special weapon against the Autobots. It is also time for the plan to take place so go to the rendez-vous point. The object needed for the plan will be in position and once the Autobots are all but destroyed you may have your experiments back. Do not lose them again Shockwave. ::**

**:: Of course my Lord. ::** He replied before the line went dead. Megatron was correct – losing them a second time would be an inefficient waste of time and resources. Shockwave turned back to preparing his lab.

The 'human factor' was his second experiment to see the effect energon had on humans when injected into their bloodstream. The results highly interested him.

**:: Shockwave to Laserbeak, I am en-route to the destination. ::**

**:: Understood. I will take care of our.. little friend for you. ::**

**:: Appreciated. ::** He said, before heading underground and activating driller-bot, one of his many secret weapons. When the Autobots showed up, hid calculations showed that it would convince them the decepticons had not known about the location of the object in question beforehand.

Driller-bot activated, Shockwave progammed his navi-computer for Chernobyl.

**Jazz's POV**

The next day, and Jazz headed off to the med-bay to retrieve his charge from the resident medic. It would be the first time he had seen Phoenix since after talking to Prowl he had visited his office and seen the literal mountains of datapads that had been there for a while. Some were from the past few days, but most were from where he had neglected his work to spend time with Phoenix. By the time he had completed the important ones, Ratchet had told him Phoenix was asleep again and he would have to come the next day.

When he arrived, he was greeted by a very over-excited human.

"Jazz!" She crowed joyously as he grinned at her.

"Hey there lil' lady." He replied in the same tone, catching her as she jumped into his hand.

"Good. Now you are here you can get here out of my plating for a few hours." Ratchet grumbled and Jazz grinned. His charge had apparently been doing a good job of annoying the medic in less than a day. "I want her back in a few hours though to run some more tests or if she feels ill. Understood?"

"Got it, Hatch'." He said and the medic glared at him in exasperation whilst launching a wrench at Jazz which he managed to dodge before grabbing Phoenix and bolting out of the med bay.

"MY DESIGNATION IS NOT HATCHET, JAZZ!" Was the resounding roar that followed them out as Jazz bolted with his charge.

"Thank Primus." Phoenix sighed as they got away.

"Hatchet bein' hard on yah?" He asked sympathetically.

"Yeah. I heard he welded you to the wall."

"Yup." Jazz said, in a very cheerful way. "Annoyed Prime an' Jackie no end, but since it's Hatchet, they ain't gonna argue wit' him." Jazz explained and it was obvious he found the whole thing hilarious. Then he turned more serious.

"So… I spoke tah Prowler 'bout the whole bond thing an' he needs some time tah adjust." Jazz told her and she nodded.

"I know. I suspected as much when we spoke briefly in the med-bay yesterday." Phoenix sighed out, groaning as she remembered the events. "And now he hates me."

"Nah, ol' Prowler just don't know how tah express 'imself an' suchlike. He doesn't wanna be too close tah many 'bots an' it was forced on him suddenly." Jazz explained, although he didn't know for sure if Prowl hated her. He didn't think so, but you could never tell with Prowl.

"Everyone keeps saying that though." She replied before shifting in his hand awkwardly. "Are you alright with it?" She asked shyly and Jazz snorted.

"Wha' kind of a question is tha'?! This is great! We are supposed tah be bonded after all 'cause yah are mah charge an' yah ain't as annoyin' as ah though'." He jibed at her and she raised her eyebrow as she crossed her arms.

"Well you are." She retorted with a grin and Jazz felt a flicker of amusement in the back of his processor. It didn't bother him at all, in fact it felt perfectly natural to have her there just like it did with Prowl. They continued down the corridor and there was a comfortable pause in which neither spoke for a moment. Then, Jazz took a right away from the rec. room.

"Where are we going?" Phoenix asked curiously.

"Ah arranged ah trainin' match wit' the twins. Thought yah migh' like tah watch."

**Phoenix's POV**

"Would I ever!" Phoenix exclaimed gleefully. She didn't know who would win actually, but she would root for her guardian nonetheless. He was a good fighter as he was head of special ops, but the twins were excellent front liners and there were two of them and one of Jazz. She was pleased that Jazz was alright with the bond, as it would suck if he wasn't! It was bad enough she had apparently now annoyed Prowl.

Then, there was an odd sensation at the back of her mind, like a mental poke. She allowed the sensation and a humming excitement filled her mind that was obviously Jazz. Grasping on to it curiosly, she noted that the presence was musical with odd notes drifting around here and there as well as being rather chaotic. Searching the back of her mind, she found a quieter, much smaller presence that she couldn't feel as well and she assumed it was Prowl blocking her. Nonetheless, she gave it a mental tug than Jazz felt.

"Yah got it!" The mech exclaimed happily and tugged back, making her laugh a little as a mental 'Tug of war' took place. Jazz won, but Phoenix knew that if the bond grew stronger then hopefully she would be as good as he was.

They arrived in a large hangar that was evidently the 'mud run' Epps and Lennox had told her about earlier that week. Looking over, she noted that there was also a 'bot sized one being built out of various obstacles and she shook her head in wonder at the sheer amount of mud there. Sunstreaker must love that, Phoenix thought sarcastically. They went through into the next hangar which was completely empty, save for the twins and Ironhide warming up.

"Jazz, Phoenix." Ironhide grunted as he greeted them before clouting Sideswipe over the head as the mech no doubt shared a private joke with Sunstreaker over their bond. "Pay attention slaghead."

"Didn't say nothing." Sideswipe insisted.

"I'm not stupid." Ironhide rumbled in reply and Sideswipe pouted in a rather human-like way before getting clouted by Ironhide again. Phoenix reflected that Sides did spend a lot of the time being hit by various objects for his stupidity, but it never seemed to do anything for his cocky attitude.

"Ready to get your aft kicked in front of your charge Jazz?" Sides grinned as Sunny activated his blades almost lazily and looked them over before giving a few casual swings. Ironhide took Phoenix from Jazz and moved to one side of the hangar as various human soldiers gathered to watch the sparring match.

"When ah'm done with yah both, yah won't have any afts tah worry about." Jazz grinned back good naturedly and took up his position opposite the silver twin. Sunstreaker took his place to the left and slightly in front of Sideswipe.

"Please try not to deactivate each other for the love or Primus. I can't deal with an angry Hatchet today. Now are you ready?" He asked and both nodded. "Then go!" Ironhide said, and Phoenix waited with wide eyes and baited breath as they circled each other. Then suddenly, without warning, Sunstreaker brought his blade down in an overarcing blow, hoping to hit Jazz but the smaller mech dodged out of the way easily towards Sides and engaged them both at the same time.

She gaped in awe as the blades collided, Jazz using both his blades and a series of complicated manoeuvres to dodge all four of the twin's swords. They moved at seemingly inhuman speeds, fast and fluid. Considering they were made of metal, this was quite an impressive feat to Phoenix. Ironhide chuckled down at her gaping face before beginning to explain it in low undertones.

"You see Sunstreaker is always trying to circle back around to Sideswipe?" He rumbled, and Phoenix nodded. "It's an instinct he has to protect his twin, and although they have an advantage where they can work together through their bond and by attacking Sides more viciously Jazz is using Sunstreaker's instinct to his advantage. When Sunstreaker moves to protect Sides, he leaves his other side vulnerable to attack and Jazz knows this. He's baiting them." The large mech explained, gesturing to the blades as Sunstreaker brought it across to protect Sideswipe, only to scowl as Jazz landed a hit on his exposed side.

"Wow. They know each other's strengths and weaknesses well. What are Jazz's weaknesses?" She asked him and Ironhide considered the mech before replying.

"See how he fights?" Ironhide said, and Phoenix studied her guardian.

"Wildly." She commented.

"Exactly. He's cocky, and sometimes that can be a good thing until he gets overconfident. Today he's showing off and he'll lose his blades to Sideswipe in a minute if he's not careful. Although, that may just be a tactic he's using."

"How? If he's disarmed, they'll win." Phoenix pointed out logically.

"Usually they would, yes, but you forget that Jazz is special ops and they are the masters of trickery." Ironhide said in a way that suggested he had had previous run-ins with 'special ops trickery' before. Sure enough, Jazz lost his sword to Sideswipe first and the other to Sunstreaker. The twins grinned, sure they had won but to her amazement Jazz _back-flipped _ several times in a way she had not thought possible for a metal being, before slipping under the twin's blades and retrieving his weapons.

He finished the manoeuvre with a flip over the twins' heads, and as they turned Jazz was behind them with his blades aimed at their backs. The mechs stiffened and Jazz grinned.

"Ah win." He said, before lowering the blade to shake servos with both mechs.

"Well played. You used your overconfidence against us. We thought you were cocky and we disarmed you…."

"Fallin' righ' into mah trap." Jazz finished for Sideswipe. Sunstreaker merely grunted, although he did shake Jazz's servo. Phoenix suspected the golden twin was a very sore loser.

"Special ops. Always one step ahead." Ironhide half-grumbled before thinking his statement over. "Although, it is useful against the 'cons." He rumbled as he handed her back to Jazz who grinned down at her.

"Like tha'?"

"Yeah! It was so awesome how you tricked the tricksters!" She laughed back and Sideswipe held a hand over his chassis, putting on a pretence of being wounded.

"That hurts right here, sweetspark."

"You'll live." Phoenix said back, turning back to Jazz to ask who had trained him to fight like that. As she did so however, a very irritated liaison appeared at the hangar door along with a bunch of high ranking officials. Not five seconds later, Lennox and Epps appeared in hot pursuit, spluttering protests. There was a collective sigh from the cybertronians and humans alike as they dispersed in the wake of the man.

"You!" The man barked, striding over to Jazz.

"Wha' can ah do for yah liaison Galloway?" Oh, so this was the infamous Galloway? He was shorter than she had been expecting.

"You deliberately disobeyed orders and brought a child on base. Not only did you do that, you are now gallivanting around with her in a totally irresponsible manner and…" Annoyed with his rambling, Phoenix decided now was an Optimum time to speak up and make her opinions known.

"Oi you!" She called down to him and he stopped mid-rant to look at her in surprise. "Yeah you. You are aware I can hear every word you are saying right? And for your information, we weren't gallivanting around, Ironhide here was teaching me about methods the Autobots use against decepticons by way of visual demonstration." She said, making it up on the spot. She gestured to Jazz to put her down and found that, to her annoyance, she was actually a little shorter than Galloway.

Cursing her height of 5'3, she drew herself up to her full height in an attempt to look taller and stepped forward to look him in the eye as he protested.

"Teaching a child about war? Shame on you!" He yelled at the 'bots.

"Mr Galloway, have you ever seen a decepticon?" She asked sharply and the liaison stuttered in surprise. "I'll take that as no. Well, I have and they sure as hell aren't nothing to laugh about. In fact, I'd rather like to know how to fight one if they ever try to kidnap me again which is more than I can say for you _Sir _as I am useful and you quite frankly, are replaceable. Therefore, I am learning invaluable knowledge that you, as the liaison, should actually know but probably don't…"

Here, she paused to watch that sink in and was rewarded with a suitably dumb expression.

"So, I would suggest either you shut up, join the lesson and watch or go elsewhere and bother someone else thank you very much, as _this child _ is under the guardianship of Colonel Major Willian Lennox and the Autobots, and has permission to remain on this base. The door is over there, thank you." She said smartly and Galloway just stared at her for a few moments in disbelief, before looking incredibly angry and storming out of the door with the shocked officials in tow. He turned at the door to mutter a threat.

"Rest assured, the high-ups will hear about this and you will not be here for much longer." He threatened angrily and she gave him a mocking bow.

"Of course, Sir. See how far that gets you against Optimus Prime." She returned as Galloway stalked out with his head held high. There was a pause in which the twins exchanged several glances just before a loud chuckle came from the Autobot entrance behind them. They turned to see Optimus Prime and Ratchet watching with highly amused expressions on their faceplates, Ratchet struggling not to look amused.

Then Sideswipe sunk to the floor in loud peals of laughter, followed by Jazz, Lennox and Epps who had remained behind and even Ironhide joined them there. Only Sunstreaker had the grace not to fall over laughing although he was chuckling and shaking every few moments as he was trying to hold back laughter.

"Primus! Tha' was the best thing ah 'have e'va seen! Did yah see the look on his face!?" Jazz roared out, and feeling his mirth seep through Phoenix burst out laughing as well.

"He had it coming to him, I just didn't think it would be from a teenager of all people." Epps added as Lennox clapped him on the shoulder, also laughing.

"He'll be impossible now, but it was worth every word to see his face! He looked like he was going to explode!" Lennox added, putting in his two pence worth. Phoenix grinned at the 'bots gathered around her.

"Well, you should have warned me he was going to be that big of an afthead."

"And missed the look on his face!? No way, I've got that on record and I'm never erasing it." Sideswipe got out as Sunny chuckled alongside him. When they had all recovered, she turned to Ratchet and Prime. Prime had his battle mask on, and Ratchet had pressed his lips together in an obvious effort of trying not to laugh.

"If you are done, then I wonder if you would be interested in taking a walk with me?" The Prime offered and Phoenix reflected that she hadn't actually spent much time with the big guy yet as she spent most of it with Jazz, Ratchet and the other 'bots in the rec. room. She did want to spend more time with Jazz but she was sure she could do that later.

"Sure! I'll see you later Jazzman." She said and climbed into the Prime's hand as he knelt down to offer it to her. She reflected that he wasn't as scary as she used to think he was, and was more of a gentle giant than anything else.

"Sure thing Phoenix. See yah!" Jazz waved after them as they left to take a walk to do whatever Prime had planned for them.


	21. We are all mad here

Prime ended up taking her back down into the archives place and placing her on top of another tall pedestal which was a cleverly designed viewing platform for humans.

"I thought you might like to see some places from Cybertron now you will be staying with us?" Prime asked and Phoenix nodded eagerly. as she leaned over the railing.

"That sounds awesome! I'd love to learn more about you guys." She said and Prime smiled a little.

"I am sure we would like to learn much about your culture too. Human culture is rich." Prime said as he went over to one of the rows and browsed along it before pulling out a small disk and inserting it into a slot below his audio receptor. Then, he pressed something to the side of his optic and a hologram appeared that seemed to fill the entire room.

Gaping in awe, Phoenix leaned a little further and admired the hologram. It was an incredibly realistic scene of a Cybertronian city skyline, with twisting spires made out of iridescent hues of crystal reaching into the clouds. She couldn't even see the tops of some of them!

"Wow! What is the name of this place? Also, I'm coming back with you to Cybertron just so you know." Phoenix told him. She would love to live in a place like that.

"This is Iacon, my birthplace and capital of Cybertron. It also held the great archives of our planet with enough history that it would take several million millennia to read it all." Prime told her and Phoenix's eyes nearly popped out of her head. Several million millennia. A Millennia was big enough on its own!

"That is awesome! What else was in Iacon?" She asked, only for her jaw to drop again as Prime zoomed in on a part of the hologram like it was some kind of special 3D camera.

"This is the Temple of the Primes. It was built during Cybertron's Golden Age as a place to remember the seven original Primes and all they did for our people. It also contains the known history of the Matrix, and the little we know about the allspark." Optimus explained to her and Phoenix frowned. That was the official name of that little zappy thing.

"What do you know about it?" She asked curiously and Optimus seemed to sigh a little.

"Not much I'm afraid. We know it has been around longer than living memory, and longer than the beginning of the Iaconian archives. It is possible that it was even around longer than Cybertron itself. It holds the only means for our people to create life that we know of at least and we previously thought it could never be destroyed…" Optimus trailed off and Phoenix felt awful that the only way their race could procreate was gone. Well, almost.

"So… why did the shard zap me if it's dead? And how do you know there aren't other allsparks?" She said hopefully and Prime chuckled at the second question.

"The answer to both of those is that I do not know. Perhaps the energy in the allspark is not dead, but merely transformed and we were unable to detect it for a reason we do not know. If there was another allspark amongst the stars, then that would indeed be a blessing." Optimus said reverently and Phoenix smiled a little as he seemed to cheer up just a fraction.

"So since it apparently put its remaining energy in me then, will I become a cube?" She asked jokingly and Optimus did chuckle at that. She felt pleased in a way, as it seemed that the stoic Prime did not laugh very often. "So this is the Temple of the Primes huh? Do you have any other Temples?" She asked and Prime nodded.

"The main ones are the Temple of the Primes, the Temple of Primus and the Temple of Unicron. The first two are in Iacon and the last is in Kaon, or more specifically, below it. Not many went there as strange things are said to have happened." Optimus said gravely and Phoenix shuddered inwardly.

"Well that's not at all creepy." Phoenix muttered and Prime looked amused. Oh yeah, super advanced alien hearing was a thing now too. She'd forgotten about that.

"Here is the entrance." Prime said, turning off the hologram and selecting a new one before activating it again. It showed two evil looking Cybertronians each holding their swords crossed over the entranceway. Phoenix noted they both had red optics.

"They looked like your version of Sith Lords." Phoenix told him and his optics dimmed as he researched the term before nodding.

"I suppose that would be an accurate description as a good translation would be 'Dark Knights'. The Primes were considered to be the 'Good Knights'." He explained and Phoenix thought that over.

"So you are a knight then?"

"Yes." Optimus answered before looking back at the image. "Although we have not been called that since before the Golden Age as it was only used as a term when the Primes went to war with the Dark Knights." Optimus explained and Phoenix tried to get the timeline in her head. She really needed a Cybertronian lesson on dates and ages, although she suspected it was like the whole 'Triassic, Jurassic, Dark ages period etc' that humans used.

"Right… so your race is born and eventually there's a whole war of the knights. Then, the Golden Age happens. Then the war between 'bots and 'cons?" She asked just to clarify.

"An accurate summary, although there are other more specific time periods and others before the war of the Knights as you call it but there is not a lot of data on those." Optimus replied and she nodded. She understood it now.

"I'm really learning a lot today." She concluded ruefully and Optimus smiled.

"Do you like History?" He asked and she nodded. She'd always liked History at school; it was in fact her favourite subject.

"Yeah. I do. Always have done." She replied and Optimus looked thoughtful.

"I am not the best when it comes to retelling Cybertronian History as I am actually one of the younger Autobots despite being a Prime. Ratchet knows more than I and one of Prowl's passion is History." Prime said and Phoenix groaned.

"Ratchet, maybe if he's in a good mood but I think lessons from Prowl are the last thing that is going to happen at this point." She sighed before pointing at the Prime threateningly. "And if you dare say 'give him time' , I'll have you know I've heard that enough and I get it already." Phoenix told him and Prime chuckled again.

"I was going to say that actually. It is true though – Prowl is not one to be deliberately mean. He is a good Autobot, and a good spark." Prime told her and she nodded, looking down at her feet.

"Yeah, I mean, I guess so. He seemed nice enough and the bond just scared him off." She sighed. "I can't blame him though. I just want to fix it… you know?" She told him and he nodded knowingly.

"Something tells me you'll figure it out, so perhaps you should wait for an idea to come. Do not worry about it either." Prime said kindly and Phoenix thought the words over carefully. Maybe she could figure something out? Yeah, she could do that. It might take a little while to think of exactly what to do about it but Prime was right, there was no point worrying about it.

"Alright. Thank you Optimus." She said sincerely and he smiled down at her.

"You are very welcome. Now then… what else would you like to know about?" He asked and Phoenix opened her mouth to say she wanted to see other cities and know about their History, but was interrupted by a shout from the entrance.

"Optimus! Mearing wants you!" Called Epps. Phoenix turned to look at him and he sighed as he noticed her. "You too, Kiddo. She ain't too pleased with what you said to Galloway, even if the asshat deserved it." Epps told her and Phoenix groaned in annoyance.

"Great. A telling off. Who is she anyway?" Phoenix asked and Optimus vented heavily as he picked her up and followed Epps out.

"Our resident Director. She and Liaison Galloway get along extremely well." Optimus said distastefully and Phoenix looked up at him sympathetically.

"That bad huh? Guess I'm in a lot of trouble then." She groaned dramatically, causing Epps to grin up at her.

"You don't even know how much we hate them both kid." Epps said ruefully as they made their way to the meeting room.

Half an hour later, and Phoenix was finally released from the presence of her great highness Mearing. That woman was awful! First, she'd been forced to apologise to Galloway in front of _all _the Autobots and important N.E.S.T soldiers before receiving a lecture from both Mearing and Galloway that her behaviour had to be perfect on base or they could send her right back to the home.

Phoenix knew that she shouldn't have been that rude to Galloway, but it had been well deserved according to everyone on base and it had been worth it to see his face anyway. Then, she had been kicked out so they could finally have their important meeting about whatever the heck it was about. Thoroughly annoyed, she wondered where to go to now. Jazz happened to be in said meeting so spending time with her guardian was out.

She could go to the rec room? Yeah, that wasn't a bad idea. Walking in, she found that the only one in there was surprisingly Ratchet who seemed to be looking up for someone. When she went in, he pointed at her immediately.

"You! I've been looking everywhere for you! It's time for another scan." He said and offered her his hand which she climbed into.

"Sorry Ratchet. I got kidnapped by Mearing over the Galloway incident." She sighed and Ratchet rolled his optics before launching into a tirade about Mearing.

"That woman is an absolute menace to the Autobots! She never tells me anything, includes me in any of the meetings, even the ones that are about medical supplies for Primus' sake and on top of that she never grants any requests for supplies anyway!" Ratchet pretty much yelled to the heavens and she blinked in surprise before grinning.

"So, you don't like her?" She asked and Ratchet groaned.

"She's a pain in my aft." He answered at a lower volume as they entered the med-bay. "Do you know what the meeting is about?" He asked hopefully, setting her down on the nearby berth.

"Sorry, no. She kicked me out after giving me a lecture." Phoenix said in annoyance. Ratchet sighed.

"Can't be helped I suppose. I'll just get it out of Prime later." Ratchet said threateningly, brandishing a wrench at an imaginary Optimus. Phoenix felt quite sorry for their leader when he next arrived in the med-bay to find an evil doctor ready to extract information out of him. The thought made her giggle.

"Have you ever thought about becoming an interrogator? She asked Ratchet and he searched the term before shaking his head at her.

"No. I'm a medic." He responded bluntly before running various scans over her body. "Well, you seem to be in order so you can go." He said and she shook her head.

"Nah. Haven't got anywhere to go and you might get lonely." She said in mock sympathy.

"Primus forbid that should happen." Ratchet answered sarcastically, giving a snort as he turned back to organising his med-bay which still looked awful from the explosion. The thought inspired a question.

"Hey Ratchet?"

"What?" He practically growled at her. Hostile much?

"What kinds of bonds are there between Cybertronians?" She asked.

"Well… there's sibling bonds, Creator and Sire bonds and Sparkmate bonds. Any Cybertronian can form a Creator or Sibling bond with someone who is not related to them by energon and that is where the term surrogate creator comes from and how Jazz and Prowl were able to form their brother bond." Ratchet explained to her. "Although, not many mechs do due to the risks involved. If one of the members die, the pain is… excruciating." He told her and she winced.

"So Prime's sparkmate… he's in pain all the time?"

"Yes." Ratchet answered shortly and then said no more. Phoenix shivered. What a horrible fate, to be alone forever. Although….she was now part of a bond so if Prowl or Jazz offlined which she sincerely hoped they wouldn't, that would be a big problem.

"How many of you have sparkmates?" She asked and Ratchet hummed thoughtfully.

"That I know of? Prime did, do you know of Chromia?" He asked and Phoenix nodded.

"Arcee's Creator and Bumblebee's as well yeah?"

"That's right. Other than that… there's none that I know of, but there may be others who keep their sparkmate a secret, either because they are a decepticon or offlined long ago." Ratchet said and she nodded thoughtfully.

"So it's taken seriously then?"

"Very. A spark-bond cannot be undone and many do not survive the offlining of the other partner. Optimus is an extraordinarily strong 'bot." Ratchet stated. Phoenix nodded and stopped talking, curiosity satisfied for now.

_"__He's lying. He does know about other sparkmates." _Said a silvery voice that Phoenix recognised.

"Elita?" She murmured out loud and Ratchet shot her a strange look.

"What was that?" He asked and Phoenix smiled at him falsely.

"Nothing." Phoenix replied and he looked at her suspiciously before going back to his work.

_"__Elita? What are you doing in my head?" _She asked and she felt Jazz probe her across the bond, but told him it was nothing to worry about.

_"__I am here to guide you, remember?" _ Elita's voice said and Phoenix resisted the urge to shake her head from side to side as Ratchet would think she was even weirder.

_"__And since when did that include snitching on the medic?" _ She asked and Elita's laugh resounded in her head. Yup, she was crazy for sure now after the allspark had zapped her. Urgh.

_"__You aren't crazy." _ Elita said and Phoenix frowned.

_"__That's what they always say." _She answered back. Elita laughed again, but it was beginning to fade.

_"__I must go now, but I will be back." _ Was the parting message she received before Elita's voice faded from her mind.

"Reassuring." She muttered to no-one in particular and Ratchet shot her another odd look.

"Are you sure you are quite alright?" He asked, scanning her again much to her annoyance.

"I'm fine. And even if I wasn't, it's been a weird week." She told him and he relented at that but did not question her further to her relief.

Phoenix was left to think over said week which had been the craziest one of her life. Living on an Autobot base, getting zapped, hit with energy, taking to a dead robot in robo-heaven or wherever they had been, losing an arm, History lessons with a giant robot and an Autobot wedding were definitely things she had never thought she would experience.

"It seems like ever since I met Jazz, the world has gone completely mad." She told Ratchet who snorted.

"Welcome to the Autobot base. Everyone you meet here is insane." Ratchet sighed.


	22. Jazz is (really) short

It was at that moment that Will Lennox chose to rush into the med-bay as he slid to a halt and Ratchet shot him an odd look.

"Are you quite alright Major?" He asks and Will holds up a hand, evidently a little out of breath before regaining his senses and looking up at them.

"I'm all good. I've just been given permission to go home." He says and Ratchet nods seemingly pleased for him.

"Congratulations." He states as he lifted Will up to the berth where Phoenix was so Will was next to her. "You have not been home for a while now if I am correct." Ratchet adds and Will nods rapidly as though he is distracted as he turns to Phoenix.

"Yeah, I haven't. Point is, I need to talk to you Phoenix and I've been planning to do so for a few days now it's just I haven't got round to it." Will says rapidly and Phoenix frowns, wondering what he could possibly want her for.

"Okay?" She asks and Will sighs heavily before beginning.

"So, you know I am registered as your guardian yeah?" Will asks and Phoenix nods slowly, not knowing what this has to do with anything yet.

"Yes."

"I was wondering if…. You'd like to come home with me to meet my wife Sarah and Daughter Annabelle. You don't have to, but Annie's always wanted a sister and Sarah is delighted at the idea of having you. Is that okay? Ratchet can come too if he needs to watch you after that allspark stuff and Jazz is welcome too." Will says anxiously and Phoenix digests the information in shock.

"You mean you want me to go to your house?" Phoenix asks and Will nods seriously.

"Only if you want to though." He says, seeing her face. "Really, if you don't want to then…"

"No I do… it's just… you actually want me?" She asks hopefully and Will looks confused.

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I?" He asks and Phoenix grins as she throws her arms around him which surprises both him and her as he pats her lightly, although he does seem pleased.

"Just reasons I guess, but I'll definitely come if that's okay with you Ratchet?" Phoenix asks and the medic snorts as he begins to pack various tools.

"Fine with me, but I'm coming and Jazz will want to as well before this new mission next week or whatever the pit it is." Ratchet grumbles and Phoenix frowns. A new mission for Jazz? She doesn't like the sound of that as her guardian is still repairing himself and he might get injured again.

"Get Prime to debrief you later." Will says seriously before turning to Phoenix. "I doubt you have much to pack, but if there's anything you want to grab then go and get it before meeting Ratchet back here and we'll get going soon. I've got until the day before the mission next week." He says gleefully and Phoenix nods, knowing she doesn't have anything to pack anyway. Will then gives Ratchet the times and location to meet him for leaving before running off to pack his own things.

A few hours later.

Phoenix had chosen to go with Will and Ironhide for the journey so that maybe she could get to know Will a little bit better and was sitting in the passenger seat with Will in the driver's seat. Thing is, she hadn't actually spoken to him once yet as she was pretty nervous about going. Would Sarah and Annabelle like her? What would happen if they didn't? Would she be able to stay with the Autobots then? All these questions in her head and no answers.

_"__Yah should try an' talk to 'im." _Jazz commented through the bond and she resisted the urge to frown in annoyance in case Will noticed.

_"__I wouldn't know what to say." _Phoenix replied and she got the impression of Jazz thinking through various topics.

_"__Ask 'im 'bout Annie an' Sarah?" _Jazz suggested and Phoenix thought it over.

_"__Alright." _She replied before turning to Will.

"What is Annabelle like?" She asked curiously and Will gave a small laugh.

"She's about this high." He said, indicating with his hand how tall she was. "With Sarah's blond hair and my eyes and she's quite the little Madam. Basically rules the roost and also has Ironhide under her thumb." Will said which was met by an indignant snort from Ironhide.

"She does not!" Ironhide protested but it sounded only half-hearted to Phoenix and it must have done to Will as well because he patted the steering wheel in reassurance.

"Whatever you say 'Hide." Will said and Phoenix grinned an annoyed sound came from the engine. Phoenix could also feel Jazz's laughter over the bond as he was listening in on the conversation through Phoenix's ears and found it highly amusing. "She also likes painting, mud and water." Will said in a long-suffering manner and Ironhide groaned.

"Tell me about it. If she gets paint in my gears again, you owe me a wash Will." Ironhide snarked and Phoenix asked Jazz what the story was and received an image of Ironhide covered in a multitude of different colours in his truck form with a very proud looking toddler who was also covered in paint standing next to him.

"I can imagine that." She laughed and Will grinned at her whilst Ironhide just snorted again.

"Sure, you can _imagine _it." Ironhide replied sarcastically, and at the next turn deliberately moved towards the side of the muddy country road and ended up spraying Jazz with mud. There was a loud shriek from over the bond before a message came over the radio.

"Wha' was tha' for?!" Jazz asked indignantly and both Phoenix and Will turned to see Jazz's alt mode covered in mud.

"You showed Phoenix a picture of it." Ironhide said and Phoenix wondered how he could have known that, but guessed it must be some kind of sixth sense the topkick had.

"Ah didn'!" Jazz protested before Ironhide turned off the radio.

_"__Yah owe meh ah wash." _Jazz said sulkily through the bond.

_"__I do not! You showed me, I only asked for the story!" _She protested smugly before a thought came to mind. _"Besides, can't you just use a car wash?" _Phoenix pointed out and was sent an awful sensation of cold prickling water and fluff stuck in internals.

_"__Tha's wha' ah car wash feels like an' sides Lennox lives in tah middle o' nowhere." _Jazz replied and Phoenix finally took pity on him.

_"__Fine. I'll wash you but only if you don't whine about the mud." _She warned him.

_"__Done!" _Jazz replied and Phoenix sighed heavily.

"What's the matter?" Will asked seriously and Phoenix chuckled at how worried he seemed.

"Jazz just persuaded me to give him a wash because he's afraid of the car wash." Phoenix replied and although a splutter of protests stirred up across the bond, Phoenix ignored it as Will laughed. Ironhide merely gave another snort.

"Wash him with cold water." Ironhide suggested with an evil undertone to his words and Phoenix exchanged a grin with Will.

"I might just do that." She replied and Jazz gave another shriek in her head that made her brain hurt so she blocked it partially until Jazz had stopped freaking out.

_"__Oh relax, I didn't mean it but I will if you don't stop that awful noise." _She told him and Jazz instantly stopped moaning about it lest Phoenix should make good on her threat.

After that, Phoenix turned back to watching the countryside roll past outside of the window as the roads they went down got muddier and smaller. Finally, they turned to go up an old, beaten dirt track which led to a cheerful red-bricked farmhouse surrounded by various barns and cattle fields sprawled around it.

"Wow." Phoenix stated and Will chuckled at her.

"I take it you like it then?" He asked and Phoenix nodded eagerly, pressing her hands up against the window. It was one of the greenest and prettiest places she had ever seen, with lots of animals in the various fields including horses and cows. She liked the look of the farmhouse too – much better than those grey, dirt covered buildings she was used to.

"Absolutely." Phoenix replied with a grin. Will nodded in response, looking pleased that she liked it as he chuckled.

"Wait until you see the inside them. Sarah is a great decorator." Will said and Phoenix's heart skipped a beat as the nerves came back. Would Sarah like her? Would Annabelle? What would happen if they didn't?

_"__Calm down there lil' lady. They'll love yah." _Jazz chuckled over the bond and Phoenix sighed as they pulled up in front of the house.

_"__I hope so." _Phoenix sighed as Will got out first just as the farmhouse door opened and a brightly smiling woman came out of the house before clapping her hand to her mouth.

"Will?!" Sarah gasped out and Will ran to her, grabbing her in a hug. He too, was smiling wider than Phoenix had ever seen him smile before. She hung back by Ironhide's door as the two reunited, not wanting to intrude on their first time together in what must be months judging by the look of things. Finally, Sarah noticed her and Will gestured for her to come over. Phoenix did so and held out her hand to Sarah who shook it kindly.

"Hello, I'm Phoenix. Thank you for allowing me to stay." Phoenix said shyly and Sarah smiled down at her.

"It's not a problem to have you here. I see you've brought someone new – another Autobot I presume?" Sarah asked Will who nodded.

"Yeah. You know Ironhide and Ratchet obviously, but that one there is Jazz, Prime's TIC and Head of Special Operations. He's also Phoenix's guardian. You can transform now guys." Will said to them and the three Autobots did so, Jazz coming forward to kneel on the ground and offer his index digit to Sarah which she politely shook.

"As Will said, mah designation is Jazz. It's ah honour tah meet Will's sparkmate." Jazz told Sarah who smiled back at him.

"The honour is mine." She replied as Jazz pulled away and stood up. Phoenix watched in interest as Sarah frowned up at Jazz, glancing at Ironhide and Ratchet as she did so. "I have a question if that's alright?" Sarah asked Jazz and he waved a servo at her with a grin.

"Shoot." He replied.

"You're pretty short compared to them aren't you? I thought you were all about the same size." Sarah said in confusion and Phoenix burst out laughing, causing both 'bots and humans alike to shoot her an odd look. Still giggling, Phoenix pulled herself together long enough to point up at Jazz in delight.

"She's calling you short!" Phoenix laughed and a frown passed over Jazz's faceplate as she continued laughing. "She wants to know why you are so _tiny." _Phoenix added helpfully, and Ironhide snorted as he and Ratchet stepped forward, the latter to offer an explanation.

"To answer your question Sarah, Cybertronians all have height variations just like humans do – the reason you would not have known that before now is that Ironhide and I are almost the same height and we are the only ones you have seen. Although, Jazz is admittedly rather small even for a Cybertronian as he isn't actually a minibot frame and therefore should be taller." Ratchet explained gleefully, causing Ironhide to break out in laughter along with Phoenix at the last part. Jazz just glared, servos on hips as he muttered insults in Cybertronian that Phoenix did not understand but got the impression they were quite rude.

"I see." Sarah said, clearly trying not to laugh as well.

"Ah ain't shor'." Jazz protested which only caused Ratchet to snort as he looked him over.

"You're right Jazz, and I'm sorry. You're not short." Ratchet said seriously and Jazz grinned only to scowl in the next moment as Ratchet finished his sentence. "You're _really _short." Ratchet added and Phoenix almost fell over laughing as did Ironhide.

At that moment, a human toddler who was looked to be around 3 or 4 years old came running out of the house and launched herself at Will whilst also crowing at Ironhide.

"Dadda! 'Hide!" Annabelle grinned as Will picked her up and swung her around, Sarah laughing with him as Annie squealed with delight. Then she ran over to Ironhide who picked her up gently in one servo, bringing her up to his optic level.

"Uncle 'Hide!" Annabelle called up to him.

"Hello there little one." Ironhide rumbled down at her and Annabelle smile at her guardian as she looked over the edge of his hand, thrilled at being so high up. "Have you been good for your Mother?" He asked seriously and she nodded rapidly.

"Yeah." She answered as he placed her back down to go to Will. However, instead of going back to her Father Phoenix was surprised when Annabelle ran up to her and looked up at her curiously, standing on tiptoes to get a better look.

"'Oo you?" Annabelle asked curiosly and Phoenix knelt down in front of the girl so as to be closer to her level.

"I'm Phoenix and my friend Jazz and I are coming to stay for a while." Phoenix answered, gesturing to Jazz as she did so. At her words, Annabelle grinned in delight before turning back to her parents.

"Dadda brought me a sister Mommy!" Annabelle crowed before launching herself at Phoenix with surprised Phoenix as she ended up with arms full of excitable toddler. "I'm gonna luv 'oo forev'a!" Annabelle declared before pulling away and going back to her Father, who picked her up as he and Sarah laughed at her antics.

"Would you all like to come in for dinner?" Sarah asked and the 'bots exchanged glances before transforming and activating their holoforms.

"Ah think weh woul'. Thank yah." Jazz said as he followed them indoors, stopping at Phoenix to clap her on the shoulder and lean forward next to her ear. "Ah tol' yah they'd love yah!" He said in delight and as he pulled away she rolled her eyes at him as they followed Sarah into the spacious Kitchen complete with a large dining table enough to seat all of them.

"Yeah, yeah. I wasn't nervous anyway." Phoenix protested and it was Jazz's turn to roll his eyes at her.

"Sure." Jazz snorted.

"You're still short by the way." Phoenix promptly returned, changing the subject in the hopes it would distract her guardian which it did as Jazz scowled again.

"Ah am not shor'!" Jazz protested loud enough for everyone to hear and laugh again as they all took their seats around the table.

"Are too." Ironhide said promptly and Annabelle looked over from where she was sitting on a booster seat to inspect Jazz.

"Y'huh. He's short Dadda. Annabelle said dubiously and Jazz turned to stare open mouthed at her before throwing his hands up and taking a seat beside Phoenix who snickered at him along with Ratchet who was next to her.

"Ah give up." Jazz grumbled in annoyance, but even he had to perk up when Sarah started serving out the food and placed a plate in front of him. "Phoenix look!" Jazz exclaimed as he looked at the food. "Pasta and…"

"Meatballs." Phoenix finished for him as everyone began to eat and she stared in surprise as she realised it was even better than the ones they had eaten in the Restaurant. This definitely took the prize for the best thing she had ever eaten. Period.

Realising everyone was giving them an odd look, Phoenix waved her hand at them.

"Jazz took me to a Restaurant and we had pasta and meatballs." She explained and Ratchet vented heavily.

"Forbidden no doubt." Ratchet grumbled half-sparkedly.

"Shut it Ratch', she's here now and you like her, admit it." Ironhide rumbled and Ratchet protested again, even though it was obvious he didn't really mind having her around in the med-bay most of the time. Phoenix wasn't complaining – she liked N.E.S.T base and the various 'bots she had seen so far.

"So Phoenix, tell me about yourself?" Sarah asked kindly and Phoenix looked down as she thought it over.

"There isn't much to tell really. Standard care home kid with no parents and a history of bad foster homes until they were dumped as a teen when they got too old for people to be interested, and who always seems to find trouble even when actively trying to avoid it." Phoenix snorted, and Will grinned at her ruefully.

"Yeah I get that a lot too. I got mixed up with 'cons on a routine mission." Will sighed heavily and Sarah patted his arm reassuringly as she smiled.

"And now you wouldn't have it any other way." She said and Will nodded, agreeing with her before Sarah turned back to Phoenix.

"The past week has been the most interesting one of my life by far though." Phoenix said with a smile, beginning to think over all that had happened. She didn't want to explain the whole allspark-bonding thing yet, but she could tell Sarah some stuff about the base that probably wouldn't be classified. Will would stop her if it was anyway. "I mean, I've met some really awesome aliens other than Jazz and married Prime and Ratchet for starters." Phoenix grinned and Will, Ironhide and Jazz laughed as Ratchet glared.

"Must you bring that up youngling?" Ratchet grumbled and Sarah shook her head in bemusement.

"You'll have to tell me that story later." Sarah chuckled as Phoenix continued.

"I think I'm also the first human to have a cyber-arm which is basically the same as my old one only a lot cooler and comes with the bonus of no broken bones ever, as well as having actual alien glyphs on it." Phoenix said, rolling up her sleeve so Sarah could see said glyphs. Sarah inspected them with interest.

"That is good, although you might have to be careful in public with those." Sarah said seriously and Will rubbed his hair in frustration.

"Hadn't thought of that." He said, sounding slightly annoyed with himself. Phoenix waved it off.

"I'll figure out something and it's cold now anyway so I'll be wearing long sleeves." She told him so as to ease his worry. Phoenix didn't want him to make too much fuss over her – he was being kind enough to her as it was.

"What do they say anyway?" Sarah asked curiously and Phoenix looked over to Jazz and Ratchet for an explanation.

"It's ah name-glyph. Weh all 'ave one." Jazz explained, extending his holoform's arm across the table and causing the skin to have an odd ripple effect to display his name glyph. Phoenix frowned.

"How come it isn't on your armour?" She asked and Jazz grinned at her.

"Protoform. Can' see tha' beneath tah armour." He explained. "But yeah, Phoenix has one which is 'er Cybertronian designation." Jazz told Sarah who nodded thoughtfully as she digested the information. Annabelle jumped up excitedly.

"I wanna get one!" She crowed and everyone laughed at her eagerness.

"Maybe not yet sparklet." Ironhide chuckled at her and she pouted with the most adorable expression Phoenix had ever seen.

"Awww." Annabelle protested.

"How did you and Jazz meet anyway? Glitch still hasn't got round to telling us." Ironhide rumbled and Jazz and Phoenix exchanged identical grins.

_"__Do yah wanna explain?" _Jazz asked her over the bond.

_"__Yep." _Phoenix replied and started her story.

"So, it began on a normal morning when I went for a walk in the woods…."

Later on, they were all sitting in the living room except Annabelle who had gone to bed and the Autobots had agreed to tell various stories after Phoenix had finished hers. Some were from the war and others were not, but all of them had a humorous twist that Phoenix was quite enjoying. Currently, Jazz was telling them about the time he had met Prowl which Phoenix was enjoying immensely as were Jazz and Ratchet even though they had been there.

"So here ah am standin' in tah meetin' room havin' been promoted tah TIC an' ah'm 'bout tah meet all o' tah mechs in tah Iacon base fer tah first time havin' just been transferred from Polyhex an' in walks this Praxian with 'is doorwings held high an' struttin' roun' like he owns tah place. Weh 'ave introductions an' 'e introduces 'imself an' ah'm thinkin' he's full o' it if yah know wha' ah mean. Anyway, weh 'ave introductions an' 'e starts ramblin' 'bout this stupid-aft plan ah hated." Jazz began cheerfully.

"So being the slagger he is, he stands up and tells Prowl exactly what he thinks of his plan." Ironhide snorted gleefully, remembering the event. "And he says…"

"_Tha's ah dumb-aft plan only ah scrappin' glitch-head wit' an' offline wish woul' use." Jazz announced cheerfully to the meeting room, interrupting Prowl mid-sentence. Every single set of optics in the room turned to him with a mixture of shock, horror and sheer delight. _

"Prowl's just standing there, back to Jazz as he's still in shock, but then he turns around to face Jazz head on and he says…" Ratchet added with a chuckle.

_"__Excuse me, but could you please repeat that?" The tactician asked him coldly and Jazz grinned even wider. _

"Like tah cheerful spark ah am, ah say…"

_"__Sure mah mech! Ah said tha's ah dumb-aft plan only ah scrappin' glitch-head wit' an' offline wish woul' use." Jazz told him happily and the tactician stared for a few moments in shock before recovering. _

_"__Why? My calculations dictate that…"_

_"__Calculations?! Listen mah mech, nev'a use ah computer tah determine ah spec. ops mission plan, there are tah maneh unknown vari'ahbles. Now sit down o'va there an' let tah Jazzman 'ere help yah out." Jazz grinned kindly at the mech who still looked taken aback, but took a seat nonetheless._

_Jazz explained his plan fully to the mechs gathered.. _

"Prowl looked like he been forced to eat sludge!" Ratchet hooted with laughter and Phoenix started laughing at the idea too. "It wasn't the fact that he had been interrupted so rudely, that he could have dealt with although his pride might have suffered a little. It was the fact that Jazz's plan was actually better than his and that Jaz pointed out all the flaws in his plan to the point is was evidently a failure!" Ratchet added and everyone, including Will and Sarah fell about laughing at the idea.

"So at tah end 'e says…"

_"__Thank you Jazz. If nobody has any objections I believe we will be using this new plan? No? Then this meeting is over." Prowl said sharply before turning on his ped to stalk out. Jazz snorted – this one was worse than Mirage and Primus knew that mech had been a servoful. _

_"__Righ' ray o' sunshine ain't 'e." Jazz shouted with a wide grin to the surprise of the meeting room who stared before beginning to fall about laughing._

"Meetings were very interesting from then on to say the least as Prowl absolutely _hated _Jazz." Ironhide chuckled and Phoenix grinned as Jazz sent her various memories of meetings where he had purposefully riled up Prowl beyond belief.

"Ah did it 'cause ah 'ated 'im as well. Ah though' 'e was full 'o 'imself." Jazz said fondly as he no doubt remembered a time where he hadn't like Prowl, not even a little bit. "Ah woul' go outta mah way tah annoy 'im by makin' 'im refuel, naggin' 'im tah recharge or go fer ah check-up or even tah get time off. Ah made mah reports awful an' bribed others tah do tah same an' generally made 'is life Pit." Jazz grinned at them.

"What happened?" Sarah asked curiously as she shook with laughter.

"Prowl lost it." Ratchet said seriously before dissolving into another fit of laughing that shook his holoform from head to toe.

"Tell us!" Phoenix demanded and Jazz grinned at her before doing just that.

_Jazz raised a servo to interrupt Prowl for the seventh time in the past few breems making the mech whirl on him with distaste. _

_"__Yes. Jazz." Prowl growled at him and Jazz jumped up, using the tone he knew would annoy the SIC most of all. _

_"__Yah are wrong again Prowler!" Jazz said in his sing-song tone as Prowl glared at him with a ferocity that would have melted any other 'bot's circuits but Jazz was Jazz and no stuffy, know-it-all tactician with a stick up his aft the size of Cybertron was going to scare him. _

_"__I fail to see how." Prowl said in a low tone and Jazz grinned as he moved forward to wipe the large holoscreen clear of Prowl's plan. "I-You.." Prowl stuttered at Jazz in disbelief. "I can't believe you!" The tactician snapped and a silence followed after so much so that Jazz could hear the very humming of the sparks in the room. _

_"__Meh neither. Ah'm a righ' pain in tah aft." Jazz said cheerfully and Prowl stared open-mouthed at him._

_"__You mean you did that on purpose?!" Prowl stated and Jazz nodded in response, still keeping his biggest grin on his faceplate as many in the room began to shake with laughter, Prime slipping his battle mask on. _

_"__Yup."_

_"__You are a glitching, no-good, scrapping pain in the aft!" Prowl roared at him and Jazz shrugged. _

_"__True." He admitted. "But then yah 'ave ah stick up yah aft tah size o' Cybertron an' constantly look like yah were forced tah interface wit' Megatron last nigh'." Jazz returned easily as he met Prowl's stunned optics as the mech fought back the desire to slap him. _

_"__I… you… little pit-spawn." Prowl growled before looking around at the assembled mechs and femmes and deciding it was best to leave. "Permission to take a break Sir?" Prowl practically snarled at Optimus who suspiciously had his battle-mask up and was shaking with what seemed to be laughter. _

_"__Permission g-granted." Prime said, stumbling a little over the words. Prowl left the room, and Optimus made his way out after him. Everyone else exchanged momentary glances before bursting out into laughter like they had not done for vorns. _

"I thought I was going to offline I was laughing so hard." Ratchet got out as everyone laughed along with him as soon as Jazz had finished, Phoenix most of all as she was privy to Jazz's experience of the memory and exact feelings. When they had finished, Phoenix sat up and looked at her guardian with interest.

"So how did you become friends?" She asked and Jazz smiled.

"Long story, but as weh were forced tah work togeth'a weh learned tah put up wit' each other an' he realised ah wasn' such ah glitch an' ah reliased 'e wasn' such ah tight-aft. Weh learned tah like each other eventually."

"They became inseparable after Jazz saved Prowl's aft a few times as Prowl then realised Jazz didn't actually hate him. Although, we still don't know who asked who to bond but it was Jazz because Prowl would never do such a thing." Ratchet said easily and Ironhide nodded in agreement as Jazz shrugged.

_"__Was it?" _Phoenix asked him.

_"__Not tellin'." _Jazz replied easily with a hint of mischief and she stared at him in disbelief.

_"__It wasn't you?! Prowl asked?!" _She exclaimed inwardly.

_"__Ssh. Don' look so surprised or ah'll nev'a live it down." _

_"__Wait why you would never li….. you crashed?!" _ Phoenix exclaimed and Jazz sent confirmation through the bond that had her laughing inwardly. Prowl had crashed Jazz. Well, at least he had gotten revenge of a sort.

_"__Mean." _Jazz stated grumpily as he caught her train of thought.

_"__It's true though and besides he did deserve revenge after all that tormenting. Admit it."_

_"__Fine." _Jazz replied reluctantly as they returned their attention to the conversation at hand.

"You 'bots certainly have some interesting stories." Sarah laughed before looking over at Phoenix and checking her watch as Phoenix yawned. "Would you like to go to bed?" She asked kindly and Phoenix nodded as Sarah stood up and came over to where she was.

"Yes please." Phoenix answered.

"I'll show you upstairs." Sarah offered and Phoenix followed her after saying goodnight to the 'bots and Will.

The room she was shown to was larger than any she had ever stayed in, with a tree outside the window that looked pretty good for climbing and some clothes and books already laid out for her as well as a matching dressing gown and slippers.

"We had to guess your size but I hope you like them." Sarah said, patting Phoenix on the shoulder. Phoenix turned to give her a grateful smile.

"I love them. Thank you, really." She said honestly and Sarah smiled at her.

"No problem. I'll leave you to it then." Sarah said before leaving Phoenix alone to get changed and jump into bed. Phoenix lay that way for a few minutes as she tossed and turned, trying to get comfortable. It was no use.

For the past few days she'd always recharged in the presence of another spark and now the room sounded too empty for her to get used to even though she'd slept alone for years now. Annoyed, she sat up and went over to the window, pulling back the curtains to look at the view.

Only to be surprised when Jazz's grinning faceplate appeared and she stumbled backwards in surprise.

"Primus Jazz!" She hissed at him, having got over her shock as her guardian laughed at her. "Don't do that!" Phoenix grumbled half-heartedly as Jazz grinned wickedly at her before offering her a hand for her to climb into as she opened the window and did just that, curling up in his palm.

"Can't sleep?" He asked, stroking a servo down her back lightly as she relaxed into the warm, soothing metal of his servo.

"No. I've been sleeping in med-bay for most of the week and it feels weird not to be on base. I'm also a little worried I guess." Phoenix admitted to him and Jazz cocked his helm at her as he sat down on the grass after carrying her a short distance away from the house.

"Why lil' lady?" He asked, using his new favourite nickname for her.

"Will's got some kind of mission and I don't know what it is but you're going on it and Ratchet will be as well probably." Phoenix sighed heavily and Jazz nodded seriously.

"Yeah. Gotta go tah someplace called Chernobyl an' check out an' 'alien artefact' accordin' tah yah government an' Will. Ah'm goin', Prowler's goin' an' Prime, Bee an' Ratch' are goin'." Jazz explained and Phoenix frowned as she thought of something.

"Can I come?" She asked hopefully although she knew it was useless. As expected, Jazz shook his head at her.

"Nah, yah ain' allowed. Yah've seen enough fightin' alreadeh an' ah wouldn' want yah tah get hurt no more." Jazz explained before a thought crossed his processor and he snorted. "Besides, ah even think 'bout takin' yah an' Ratchet'll kick mah aft tah Pit personally." Jazz laughed and Phoenix laughed with him for a moment before frowning up at him.

"Will it be dangerous?" She asked seriously.

"Shouldn' be, but yah nev'a know wit' tah 'cons. Don' worreh 'bout meh though, ah'll be back before yah know it. An' yah shouldn' worreh yahself 'bout it alreadeh, it's next week anyway." Jazz said, waving a servo dismissively. Somehow, that thought did not make Phoenix worry any less.

"Alright." She sighed, still unhappy with the fact that Jazz was _leaving _her even if it was only for a short time. "Can you teach me some more constellations?" Phoenix asked as Jazz lay down with her on top of his chassis.

"Sure. Tha' one is tah big dipper, an' tha' one is tah little dipper…" Jazz began as he pointed to each constellation and explained how to find them separately. Despite her worry, Phoenix soon found herself falling fast asleep, still curled up on Jazz's chassis above his sparkchamber with his servos resting over her small form protectively.


	23. Beware of the mud monster

**Phoenix's POV**

Phoenix awoke in a place full of noise and dust, with a hard surface beneath her that was nothing like that she had fallen asleep on. Jumping up, she looked around to see a giant metal city and ran to the edge of the roof only to pull away in shock.

"Holy frag!" She cried as she screeched to a halt and looked out from the top of what seemed to be the tallest building in the entire city. It appeared she was back on Cybertron and really high up at that. Phoenix didn't particularly mind heights but if she fell off here…. that would hurt like hell to say the least.

A footstep from behind attracted her attention.

"Elita?" Phoenix asked as she looked behind her to see the pink femme watching her.

"Hello again Phoenix." Elita said. "I am afraid I must be brief." She added as her faceplates took on a worried look. She came over to Phoenix and crouched down so Phoenix had a clear view of her optics. "I bring a grave warning from Primus." Elita said in a tone that sent shivers down Phoenix's back.

"What of?"

"Events that will soon be upon us sooner than we could have anticipated." Elita said worriedly before her optics dimmed and she seemed to lose focus on reality. "Children of Primus, beware the fallen watcher who stands for his own desires instead of the freedom of others." Elita told her solemnly in a voice that was not quite her own.

"You're really fond of those riddles aren't you?" Phoenix muttered although she wasn't really expecting an answer. "Ones that make no sense at that." She sighed, knowing she was going to have to dedicate some brain power to this particular riddle. How she wished she was actually good at brain teasers then this whole thing might have been easier.

"If I was any clearer it would mess up the event timeline, although that too is rapidly changing…" Elita trailed off before shaking the distant look from her optics to look back at Phoenix. "The answer will reveal itself when the time is due, and I will be with you always." Elita said with a kind smile.

"Will you talk to me like you did in the med-bay?"

"Sometimes, but not always." Elita promised. "Again, it is time for us to part ways once more. I will see you again."

The city disappeared from view and Phoenix felt the distinct sensation of falling once more.

**Jazz's POV**

Jazz onlined to the feeling of an odd yet comforting weight on his chassis, and brightened his visor to see Phoenix still curled there which his servos still resting over her. He grinned at the sight, before checking his chronometer and deciding his human charge should probably wake up. Jazz gave her a light poke and she stirred whilst making murmuring noises. He gave her another one when she failed to wake up.

"Phoenix? Time tah wake up." Jazz told her and she made another noise before sitting straight up and looking around in confusion. The feelings coming over the bond were quite chaotic, and Jazz frowned in worry as Phoenix looked around rapidly.

"Where am I?" She asked.

"Lennox's house." Jazz answered and she looked around once more before leaning back on his chassis in relief. "Alrigh'?"

"Yeah. Just…. I don't know." Phoenix said, sighing and drawing her knees up to her chest. Jazz gave her another light poke and scooped her up so she was looking directly into his visor and through it, his optics.

"Did yah 'ave ah nightmare?" He asked and she shook her head.

"I had another visit from Elita but this one wasn't as great." She sighed before Jazz felt a tentative mental prod at the back of his mind.

"_It'll be easier if I show you." _Phoenix offered and Jazz hummed, sending confirmation across the bond.

The images came slowly at first like water droplets, and then a stream, and then a flood of emotions, thoughts and feelings. Jazz saw Elita, standing on top of what looked like the main tower in Iacon and heard the conversation as though it she was saying it to him.

"_Children of Primus, beware the fallen watcher who stands for his own desires instead of the freedom of others." _

"What does it mean?" Phoenix asked him and Jazz vented heavily.

"Ah don' know either. Guess weh just 'ave tah trust 'er an' wait fer it tah be revealed tah us like she said it woul' be. Ah trust Elita, she was ah good commander." Jazz said softly, remembering the quiet, gentle natured femme who had loved and been kind to everyone and everything, even Sunstreaker of all 'bots. If you could like Sunstreaker, you could like anyone.

"_Can you show me a picture of her?" _Phoenix asked shyly and Jazz sent her one of his particular favourites. It showed Elita and Sunstreaker painting one of the walls of the rec. room on the Ark together, Elita guiding Sunstreaker with a firm but kind voice as they did so.

"_She was 'is mentor. They were artists – fraggin' good ones at tha'." _Jazz said, remembering the days when Sunstreaker had painted. As far as he knew, the golden twin had not done so for years.

He detected a hint of concealed worry from Phoenix.

"_Wha's tah matter?" _

"_This mission next week, what if the warning is about it and one or all of you gets hurt?" _Phoenix asked.

"_We'll be good. Ain't nothin' gonna get past tah Jazzman yeah? Now, let's get yah some breakfast." _Jazz replied as he raised her up to the window and she climbed through. He activated his holoform and knocked on the door. It was opened by Ironhide's holoform with Annie perched on his shoulders.

Jazz tried not to laugh at the sight but he did take an image capture.

"_Now tha's cute." _He said, showing it to both Prowl and Phoenix.

"_It'll also get you offlinined if you aren't careful." _Prowl said drily, and Jazz sensed he had distracted his brother from a meeting judging by the slightly frustrated tone.

"_Wha's tah matter Prowler?" _

"_I have had the pleasure of meeting our Liaison and Director Mearing for the first time to discuss the mission next week as well as medical supplies among other things. Are all humans this bad?" _Prowl groaned.

"_Nah, just them two." _Jazz sighed as he wondered why Primus had cursed the Autobots with those two humans for their liaison and Director.

The sound of footsteps running down the stairs distracted Jazz from his musings on the subject and he turned to see Phoenix enter the room with a wide grin on her face. Annie clamoured to be let down, and toddled over to her immediately.

"Phoenix!" Annie said, begging to be picked up by Phoenix who did just that, although the toddler was a little bit heavy for her and she couldn't put Annie on her shoulders like Ironhide could.

Ironhide looked a little bit put out so Jazz gave him a good-natured nudge.

"Aww 'hide, yah are still 'er favourite." Jazz chuckled to him. Ironhide sighed before elbowing Jazz away.

"I know that, annoying cretin." Ironhide returned grumpily and Jazz rolled his eyes teasingly before going over to where Annie and Phoenix were. A thought crossed his mind as he realised the holoform was perfectly capable of holding both of them at the same time, and he plucked Annie off of Phoenix and hung her over one shoulder. Phoenix laughed at him and he sent her a devilish grin before swooping her up over the other shoulder faster than she could react.

"JAZZ! Put me down!" Phoenix cried as she hung upside down over his shoulder and he carried them through to the kitchen where breakfast was waiting. Will and Sarah promptly burst into laughter upon seeing them and Jazz handed Will to Sarah before saluting in mock-seriousness.

"Autobot Jazz reportin' fer duty Sir." He said as Phoenix's limbs swayed with the gesture and she reached up to thump his holoform's back.

"Put me down!"

"As mah lady commands." Jazz said before depositing her on the floor in a heap to her annoyance. Phoenix jumped up and dusted herself off before taking her place at the breakfast table along with the others. "Ratch' not comin' in?"

"He's in recharge. Thought I'd leave him to it since he hasn't recharged this long for ages." Ironhide replied and Jazz nodded – it was true. Ratchet rarely ever recharged due to fixing up 'bots, mainly the terror twins.

"Ah, we'll leave 'im tah it then." Jazz said with a grin as Will served up pink strips of meat that smelled a lot better than what the soldiers usually got on base which was mushy cereal and cheap coffee or juice that was so watered-down it wasn't recognisable as even being juice.

Breakfast was just as happy an affair as dinner had been, with jokes and stories being told and general bonding taking place between the Autobots and the humans. After that, Ratchet arrived on the doorstep and nabbed Phoenix to run a dozen more scans over her, much to Phoenix's annoyance as she insisted he had run most of those scans already. (Which Jazz agreed with but didn't dare say due to not wanting to get bashed with a wrench.)

Then, Jazz decided he was getting a little too cooped up in here and turned to Will and Ironhide.

"Got any racing tacks roun' 'ere?" He asked, although he knew Will probably didn't. To his surprise, Will grinned and nodded.

"There's an old dirt track that goes round the perimeter of the entire farm – it's pretty big and supposed to be for tractors and that, but my mates and I used to race on it." Will replied and Phoenix looked over with a curious expression.

"Are we going racing?" She asked and Jazz grinned at her.

"If yah like, though ah will need someone tah race." He said meaningfully, looking in Ironhide's direction. "Bet ah can kick yer…. Can back tah Cybertron ol' timer." Jazz said, making sure not to swear in front of Annie.

"Bring it on youngling, I will crush you like a bug." Ironhide rumbled and Annie paused her drawing to frown at him.

"Don' run him over Uncle 'hide, that's mean." Annie said seriously, folding her arms in a perfect imitation of Will when he was annoyed.

"I will do no such thing little one, I was merely saying that I am going to beat Jazz in our race."

"'kay then." Annie said and, sastisfied that Jazz was not going to get crushed, she returned to her drawing.

"Can I tag along?" Phoenix asked, eyes lighting up with excitement. Jazz nodded at her.

"Sure yah can. We'll kick 'is tailpipe."

"Care to come along as well Will and prove the younger generation wrong?" Ironhide asked Will who nodded eagerly.

"Definitely! I'll be back later Sarah." Will said, leaning over to give his wife a peck on the cheek as she smiled gently.

"Alright. Have fun all of you and watch out for the mud!" She called out as they left, Phoenix climbing eagerly into Jazz's alt mode. He buckled the seat belt for her and followed Ironhide to the beginning of the dirt track which was an unofficial starting line as the whole thing was a circuit and one could have started anywhere presumably.

"Shall weh star' then?" Jazz asked both out loud and over commlink.

"I'll kick your aft." Ironhide replied before doing the countdown. "Ready? 3, 2, 1, GO!" Ironhide yelled and Jazz sped off, wheels kicking up massive amounts of dirt as he did so. He purposefully didn't go at top speed because it was a dirt track and he didn't want to lose control like an inexperienced racer out for their first drive.

As he sped up a little down a long dirt stretch, Phoenix gave a loud cheer of delight.

"Woohoo! Faster!"

"Yah wan' speed?" Jazz asked with a grin, deciding it wouldn't hurt to speed up a bit more down this stretch of road as it was completely straight. "Ah'll give yah speed!" He yelled, speeding it up so much that they left Ironhide and Will in the dust.

He slowed down a little as they rounded the bend and all was going great until….

"JAZZ! WATCH OUT FOR THE….."

"PRIMUS FRAG!"

The bend took a sharp turn right into the biggest muddy puddle that Jazz had ever seen even as he hit the breaks. Unfortunately, the sudden spin of his wheels just made the effect even worse as it kicked up the ground.

"Mud….." Phoenix trailed off as the mud went flying in every direction. Jazz resisted the urge to squeal like Sunstreaker as the mud went everywhere, including up into his engine and plating. Over the radio came the sound of Will and Ironhide roaring with laughter, despite the fact that Jazz was still in the lead.

"Awh, Primus!" Jazz groaned. It was _slimy _and _sticky. _

"Hey Jazz, you know there are probably cow-pats mixed in with that mud right? Horse manure too." Will said gleefully over the radio and Jazz's tanks churned. They didn't have wash-racks up here either!

He managed to keep his control for the rest of the race, and he won but his pride took a severe beating as he let Phoenix out and transformed which only made the whole effect worst as now he resembled a mud monster. Annie and Sarah came running out, and Ratchet raised an optic ridge from where he was sitting on the ground. Ironhide also transformed and took one look at Jazz before falling about laughing with Will.

"It ain't funneh!" Jazz said disdainfully as he looked down at Phoenix who was currently the only one not laughing, although he could see her lips trembling as she had the good graces to bite back her laughter.

"No, it's hilarious." Will got out as he doubled over laughing. Jazz looked down at himself and realised that the stuff also smelled awful as well, which only added insult to injury. It was bad enough that he was covered from helm to ped in the stuff, and now he smelt like... unspeakable organic horrors. Primus really hated him today it seemed.

"He looks like a cow-pat Mommy." Annie said wisely.

"Smells like one too." Phoenix said, and then she too finally collapsed from laughter. Jazz glared at her and flicked a servo at her dismissively. Unfortunately, as he did so, some of the mud went flying from his servo onto Phoenix and she too was instantly covered in the stuff.

Phoenix froze.

So did everyone else.

There was a long pause as Phoenix looked herself over.

"JAZZ!" She shrieked, trying to get it off but in vain. "It's slimy!"

"An' stickeh." Jazz said dismally, although he was now laughing from the sight of Phoenix also covered in mud.

"And funny." Will said and Phoenix glared at him as well before grabbing a handful and throwing it at him. It hit him right in the face and he wiped it off before grinning massively.

"Mud fight!" Will yelled and each and every 'bot and human instantly began grabbing huge handfuls of mud and throwing it at their nearest opponent. Phoenix ducked behind him for cover, and Jazz launched a massive servoful at Ratchet and hit him in the optic; causing the medic to turn and roar at them with anger.

"You probably shouldn't have done that." Phoenix said nervously as the medic gave another roar as he unsubspaced a wrench.

"Probably not." Jazz agreed before taking another look at the medic and deciding it was best to make himself scarce. "Run!" He yelled, scooping Phoenix up and bolting for it although he didn't get very far as Ratchet caught up to him, lifted him up by the audio receptor and gave him a few good bashes with his trusty wrench.

"Ow man!" Jazz yelled as Ratchet dropped him on the ground. He cupped Phoenix close so she wouldn't get hurt.

"Teach you to mess with me, disrespectful slaghead!" Ratchet shouted before turning and storming off.

Jazz looked at Phoenix and Phoenix looked at Jazz.

"You need a bath." She said, wrinkling her nose. Jazz grinned back at her.

"Speak fer yahself." Jazz chuckled as he looked over his mud-covered human partner.

"I think getting the hose and having a community car wash is in order." Will said from where he stood with Sarah and Annie, now also covered in the stuff. Phoenix nodded before running off to get the hose and Jazz transformed as he waited for his turn to be washed. However, as soon as the spray hit him, he shrieked.

"IT'S COLD!"

"Oh shut up and deal with it!" Phoenix teased and Jazz snorted before having an idea. Activating his holoform, he went over to where a second hose lay beside the house and turned that on. Then he took it over to Phoenix and turned her sharply to spray it in her face, causing her to squeal and smack his holoform.

"Ouch…. Yah got a good righ' hook there lil' lady." Jazz said sheepishly as he rubbed his holoform's jaw.

"You afthead!" Phoenix replied before turning her hose on him. Together, they chased each other with hoses as the others watched on.

"Think they'll come in eventually?" Will asked Ironhide who snorted.

"You never know with younglings nowadays. I suggest we just leave them too it." The black mech replied as Jazz attempted to wrestle Phoenix to the ground only to get a faceful of mud.

"Sounds like a plan." Will chuckled as they went back inside the house.


End file.
